#I FORGOT SLUDGE MONSTER HELP

[sugawara--san]

horikoshi always thinking hmm how can i give deku new, even worse kacchan trauma

[nemovanilla]

So we all know that crack-ish theory that midoriya actually doesn’t remember the river scene and bakugo had been obsessing over nothing for the last decade. And I do think that’s really funny if true BUT I also think that, given midoriya’s character and where he seems to be going, it would make SO MUCH SENSE.

Midoriya, right now, is probably thinking that once he loses ofa he’s done, he can’t be a hero anymore, and he’s lost his chance at achieving his dream. I mean, all the good things that have really happened to him have happened since getting ofa, and whenever someone brings up something related to it, it’s always sort of implied to be SINCE getting ofa (Pikahlua has a better explanation on their blog somewhere, if you care to go looking). Now, the only person that knew midoriya before he got ofa is bakugo, who so happens to be on the battlefield right now. The idea is that he’s going to convince izuku he can still be a hero, right, and he’ll have some examples from when they were kids, ie the sludge monster and the river scene. Bakugo has always thought midoriya was this great hero, which is why he obsessed over the river scene so much for the last decade. He thought midoriya knew he was better than him, and was looking down on him. But we all know, as does katsuki now, that he was actually just doing what he knew was right, nevermind actually being a hero. Because a real hero wouldn’t do it for glory or gratification—they’d do it because it’s what’s morally correct and necessary.

Midoriya still probably has it in his mind that he can’t be a hero without a quirk. All might told him he could be one—by giving him a quirk. When bakugo apologized, the wording was *just* vague enough that someone deep in denial (like midoriya) could mistake it for taking back what he said before BECAUSE of the new quirk, not in spite of it, like it actually was meant to be. But in order for this to be true, he’d have to either misunderstand or forget the heroic things he did in the past. Like the river scene.

So, imagine. Midoriya forgot about the river scene because in his mind, it was just another failed attempt to get back his friendship with katsuki. But for bakugo, the person he was helping (saving???? Does it really apply here??) it was actually a HUGE deal and an act of heroism, so significant it would affect him as a person for the next ten years. So bakugo sees midoriya, even quirkless, as a hero because he can remember all the times midoriya acted heroically before getting ofa. Whereas midoriya still believes he never did anything important until getting ofa, and thus thinks he’s about to go back to being a nobody and an outcast.

[cookie-crumblr]

Lucky

Shy M!Reader x F!Yandere OC

Part 3~

Her Info: 🪓

Part 1

<<<Previous Part _ Next Part>>>

!!!MINORS DNI!!!

CW: M! Reader, Reader has a penis, Reader referred to as he/him, psychological horror/trauma, reader is on meds for night terrors, blood, reader forced to cross dress, bdsm(leash and collar) monster plants, asphyxiation, public sex (in a separate room basically) oral on M!, not too much smut in this part.not proofread.

Anything in Red reader isn’t aware of

You’re running away from something, you don’t see what, but you hear it.

Something deep and resonating, as if it’s call is from deep underwater, your head rings from the sound.

The air is filled with so much rust, misty red clouds surround you.

You haven’t been paying attention to where you were running, through darkness around trees and over jagged rocks. Until your legs sink into sludge and you can run no longer. You hurt your muscles and keep pulling but nothing is freeing.

You try desperately to get out, finally glancing around you see vines and without thinking twice, you grab one.

It wraps up around your arm, and shoots around your throat, and pulls you out of the tar. The thick, -almost- liquid clings to your lower body, it feels disgusting.

you’re shallowly gasping, and reaching up to pry the thing off of your neck, but it’s holding fast. It feels like your throat is caving in!

Your lungs are about to collapse, no air is coming into you.

Your actual eyes fly open, and you’re still gasping.

You grasp at the things around your neck and feel the padlock first. It’s still there.

It was a night terror, but you woke up with this collar still around your throat, and the room smells like blood again!!

“Lucy?” She isn’t next to you.

You don’t remember falling asleep, or even what happened after you had sex.

She doesn’t seem to be around. Thankfully you remember your tethered, you get up and pick up the one leg of your bed to get your leash off of it before trying to dash and ending up choking yourself.

You go to the bathroom to look at yourself, you’re naked, and there are bruises you aren’t sure if you remember getting, your neck looks positively purple under the black collar. Your eyes widen as you try to pull the leather away from your skin enough to look under but you can only get maybe half of your index finger between it and you. It doesn’t help that your throat is sore on top of it.

You go get dressed and detach the leash part of the collar. The ornate padlock keeps you from removing the actual collar, you wonder if you could pick the lock…

Today’s another college day, so you’ll at least get Lucy to hopefully take this thing off.

You put on a hoodie and try to keep it hidden underneath. It’s kinda cute on you… No, don’t try an acclimate! This is weird!

You’re a little bit more mad than you’d like to admit. You drop your books onto the desk next to Lucy and she jumps.

“Heyyy Lucy, you forgot something at my place.” You point to your neck discreetly. Although thankfully nobody seems to care.

“…”

She’s staring into your eyes but it doesn’t look like she’s actually seeing you. Her usually pinkish skin is impossibly pale today… Something in your skin crawls and you sit hastily.

“Y-Y/N… Are you mad at me?” Her eyes seem so dark, and wanting, like an endless abyss trying desperately to swallow you up. You swallow away your previous feelings, probably for the best. Maybe she looked at your computer while you were putting the food away and wanted to impress you or something…

“No. I was just a little irritated to still be in this thing.” You tug on the collar with your thumb, and flash her your best smile you can currently muster. “And i didn’t sleep well” When do you ever though?

She instantly flushes, skin becoming pinker and filling with fresh warm blood, Her big eyes fill with so much joy they over flow and spill big glassy tears onto the table.

She puts her head down into her arms and her back shudders in silent sobs.

“L-Lucy!?” You put your arms around her and pull her up from her chair to take her out of class urgently, “C’mon, Luce, let’s just skip today.” It’s a bad idea, but she doesn’t seem right lately.

she almost looks like a completely different person while she smiles, from the expression she wore earlier.

You go to walk home, but she digs in her bag and pulls out her phone.

“I’m calling my chauffeur, I wanted to buy you new clothes remember?”

She lives in a different world. You take public transport and she doesn’t even drive herself.

A pearlescent pale pink Audi A8 pulls up and she walks toward it. Of course her ride would also be pink. The interior is a nice deep red with pale pink faux fur throws and pink heart cushions all over.

She definitely prioritizes comfort, and aesthetics, you give her that.

She even takes off her shoes inside, and crosses her legs on the chair next to you in the back.

Her chauffeur hands her a pink paper box and inside are delicate looking sweets. “Picked these up for you girly!” She says. Her leather gloves make you double take, but you imagine it’s just a professional chauffeur thing, or something. She does look pretty sick(as in cool XD)

Lucy eats just as adorably, thoroughly enjoying every single bite. She sweetly hand feeds you some. By the time you arrive downtown to a nice shopping district you’ve completely forgotten about the collar, and the red flags of yesterday.

“Oh!! Y/N can we stop at one of my favorite stores too!! They have really cute plus sized clothes!!” She stares into your eyes with big puppydog ones of her own her hands interlocked in a pleading kind of way.

“Fuck, sure, we’re already here!” You laugh a little, she’s too cute to turn down.

She puts a black card on the counters of every place you even glance at, getting you anything you might need. Somehow she knows all your socks have holes, your shoes were falling apart, and your pants all have this same stupid little hole in the crotch. You practically have a new wardrobe by the end of it and a second car comes to pick all the stuff up. You give the next girl your apartment key, she says she’ll give it back before you both need to return. Lucy whispers something to her before she departs with a curtsy.

Her employees seem happy, it makes you feel more comfortable with Lucy too, she must be nice even at home.

“Okay Y/N! Close your eyes! I’m gonna blindfold you and pick out something special for you!” You cover your eyes with one hand until you feel a cool velveteen fall around your head.

You feel her lead you with a manicured finger under your collar. The blidfold helps you feel less embarrassed, but you must look like a freak right now! A perverted freak! Your pants tighten at the thought, and make the scene even more indecent. You try and act nonchalant, but you can’t even tell how many people are around, you start to heat up, the anxiety building to a point where you almost take the blindfold off!

“Okay Y/N! I’ll help you get dressed!”

“I still don’t get to see anything?”

“Nope! it’s a surprise!” she giggles.

At least you heard a door close, you must be in a changing room.you reach around blindly for the articles of clothing and… Feel frills, and it bows out, it’s definitely a dress!

“No, wait Lucy! I’m n-not-!”

She kisses you and starts unbuttoning your pants, and removing your hoodie.

She feels you up as she does, and whimpers as she roams your body.

Her hands are hot against your skin.

Your frozen as the dress comes down over your head and lightly covers you.

She ties you in, tightening the waist to your body.

She puts a head band on your head, and unties the blindfold.

You’re in an all black frilly gothic lolita dress… And she put puppy ears on your head.

It’s weird how well the dress complements you, and matches the collar. You look cute— Wait! “Lucy!? I-I can’t! This is… This is too much!” She pulls out another leash, and clips it to you. Something about this is turning you on… You feel ashamed or embarrassed or both!

“I already paid for it! Pleeeeaaseeeeee?” She begs.

You sigh… At least in this bougie ass district you won’t see anyone you know.

“Fine.” You aren’t fully sure why you agree, but she gets on her knees and lifts your skirt, you twitch in your underwear uncomfortably.

“Hold this!” she commands. You do as she said, not sure yet what she’s doing, when she pulls out your cock. “I can’t resist! You’re too cute Y/N!”

You watch her this time as she kisses the tip of your already leaking cock. Your precum giving her pretty lips a sheen like it’s her favorite lip gloss…

She licks it off slowly, with her eyes closed, just like when she’s eating, she savors you just the same.

she licks up your underside eliciting shivers, “I-I love your cock! So much! Y/N! You have the best one!!” She bursts out, while slurping up around your shaft, and sucking on the tip. That makes you so hot… A girl like this? telling you that?

You cum on her face, and she uses her fingers to wipe off and then eat your semen up like it’s those sugary sweets in the car, with just as many “mm!”’s. You watch her with wide eyes as you catch your breath. She didn’t even have to suck you off… You must be more into this than you thought.

When she gets back up she fixes the dress on you and pulls you by the leash out of the room.

Other girls fill the store all dressed like you, in cute frilly dresses, they stare at you and Lucy as you leave. Her chauffeur is waiting for you both by the curb, your happy to get in somewhere more private.

“I’m sleepy, can you please take us home, Molly?” she takes her shoes off again, and gets comfy.

“Sure thing girly!” She speeds off and Lucy curls up with her head in your lap for the ride home.

You pet her hair and swear she’s purring.

You’ve never seen her home… But you imagine it’s—

It’s way bigger than you could’ve expected. She has a stable out front, You see another employee cleaning a Clydesdale in front of, and what looks like an eight car garage… Who needs an entire armada of cars!?

The lawn is entirely made of wildflowers it’s so colorful and mesmerizing in the bright sunshine. There’s bee boxes all around, and birdhouses and all types of feeders. Even some raccoons and possums are hanging out leisurely near a cushioned area filled with fruits and nuts.

Her family must love animals, and nature.

“W-welcome to my home!” She opens her arms in a grand gesture with a deep breath, before she sneezes into her elbow, “Ope! sorry, i’m allergic to pollen, but i love the stuff!!” she giggles.

She pulls you inside and leads you up a grand staircase, your new shoes (she got you some low heels to go with the dress) click against the lacquered lattice parquet flooring.

The hallway slowly gets pinker and pinker as you go on, until eventually you stop in front of a pink door with white angel wings painted on it.

She reaches into her cleavage, you can’t help but stare slack jawed, she then unlocks the door with an iron key, and puts it back.

“Here’s my room!”

You’re eyes scan the room in a fervor, she has a princess bed, the ceiling is painted to look like a cloudy pastel sky, and the room feels so comfortable, filled with faux furs and so many pillows. There’s a room before her bedroom with comfy sofas, an en-suite with a walk in closet that has another whole sofa in it…

“What do your parents do??” You ask.

“P-N-nothing! They do… Nothing. They’re both retired.” She seems to pale at that question that you thought wasn’t that deep.

“Oh, s-sorry! I didn’t know it was a sensitive topic!”

“N-no! that’s not it… Hah! i um…” she clears her throat, “Want some food!?”

You go along with her topic change but stay standing awkwardly, you swish your skirt a little. It does feel pretty cute— No. Stop that!

She picks up a landline (an old school phone) that’s shaped like a pair of angel wings on a pink heart stand. she presses one of the few buttons.

“howdy! what’s on the menu tonight,” She pauses to listen, “Ooooo!!! okay! can you send us up a platter of appetizers?” Another pause. “Yes please! Thank you! Oh!! And lots of drinks!! please and thanks!!!” She hangs up and swings her legs on her bed.

She finds you with her eyes, and pats the bed next to her. “Y/N! What are you doing still standing?” You we’re feeling a little out of place here, “Come get comfy in my lap!” She sits back against the regally canopied bed and starts arranging pillows and blankets into like a nest. You sigh, she’s really truly adorable. You don’t know why you even felt scared nervous.

There’s a familiar metallic tang in the air.

[heliosthegriffin]

Shadow Knight 24

Ao3 Link

----

“What on Remnant is that?!” White screamed flying to the left, a giant bony palm swatting through the air next to her, the draft in its wake fighting to drag her down.

“We got to go!” A hand grabbing her shoulder, White saw Black’s desperate eyes. “He did something! This place is sinking, I don’t know where!”

“Yaah!” A silver slash cut across the Giant Skeleton’s face, leaving a path of burning black sludge and argent smoke. It rolled its head backwards facing the sky, letting out an ear-piercing scream that sent cracks up the stone walls, exploded lights, vomiting forth a condensed blast of hyper-sonic air into the sky, bringing both hands down on Red, sending a shower of rose petals across the air, as she leaped away.

It’s burning red eyes stared at the rose-petals and swung it’s arms across the hallway, destroying more of centuries old building, violently ejecting ruble in blast at them, leaving a bald semicircle in front of the half-emerged monster, still half-way sunk into the ground.

Crimson danced through the air in front of them, her barrier of metal eroded the rubbled before it could touch any of them. She pointed a spear at the giant, ruggards chunks of metal exploded toward the creatures, knocking it around, leaving small craters in its black bones. She narrowed her eyes at the sight. She waved her hand towards White and Black, her barrier harmlessly absorbing them in, as they flew out of range. “We need to deal more damage, White do you think you can freeze those cracks in the bones?”

White looked at the pock-marks slowly filling up with dark essence, the slashes made by Red were smoking and sizzling, unhealing. Lifting a hand she fired an icy blast into the cracks of the bones, the silvery essence wrapping around the icy power, as a small iceberg ripped the small slashes open further. 

“We don’t have time for this! The place is done for, it’s sinking and it’ll take this thing with it, we need to go, before we can’t go back!” 

“If we defeat it now, while it’s not fully mobile, that one less tool in His box.” Crimson fired more improvised missiles at the monster, further damaging it.

“Feel free to leave, Black.” White cast more ice at the wounds. “We’re more than capable of handling this without you.”

“You-”

“Incoming!” A voice like thunder came down the hallway, Yellow soared past them fast, nearly throwing them against the wall, a golden aura of fire surrounding her as shot into the chest of the skeleton with an obscene crash. It was knocked back hard, the monster almost seeming to gasp as it screamed thunderously.

Yellow bounced off, just as it started to claw at its chest, a smoldering crack running across its sternum.

A swarm of purple lighting bolts struck its chest, the cracks growing larger and larger by the second. “Fine! I’ll help kill it! But, if we get stuck in His realm, I withhold the right to slap you all senseless before we die!”

-----

She watched as Jaune went rocketed forward, slamming a shield into one of those things, her skin crawling as red eyes locked onto them. It was as the same bulk as he was, but taller with longer limbs ending in razor claws, yet it still went stumbling backwards. 

“Advance!” He told them the words targeted some sort of primal switch in the back of their heads, flipping it from off to on. Velvet forgot any fears she had, the trembling in her hands, or the overwhelming amount of noise her ears picked up, for a moment, everything made sense. She moved with a half-dozen other men and women around him, flowing around Jaune like water; she wondered if he even knew the power his firm words held in a time of crisis, as they surrounded the monster, stabbing at it.

Not every stab hit, but they didn’t need to, as speartips struck it’s body, the wounds built up, until it would fall. Velvet felt with each thrust the blade went a little bit deeper, the wound a bit wider, until one last piercing blow, and it split in half.

“Fallback!” It was like they had become extensions of him, Velvet realized. He hardly needed to say a word, before they understood his intent. As a body flew threw where they had been, one of those creatures had a hole in its chest, laying dead on the ground. Velvet followed the direction it had come from, and almost didn’t believe her eyes, Ren’s fists were glowing pink, locked in combat with those monsters.

Not alone, though, as Nora was at his side swinging her warhammer with reckless abandon. Her blows contained surprising strength, her hearing picking up the sound of bones breaking. 

“Advance, surround it!” Her body moved on its own, spear at the ready. Ahead Jaune fought through a small pack of those things, shield bashing one of them away from him, toward them and they advanced on a sole lanky monster.

-----

River Song felt his couch pillow vibrate, eyes still closed he felt around for his scroll. Turning it on, he read the message, it came from an unknown number.

‘R. get on the chat-room, the Museum. - K’.

River woke up immediately, K. was one of his hunting partners. They didn’t talk outside of hunts.

Opening his burner scroll, he went into the chatroom. Eyes nearly unbelieving what he was seeing. A building sinking into the ground, with rumors of a terrorist attack, or gas leaks, surrounding it.

His gut told him otherwise, so he turned on the news. That LaCroix SOB was there again, declaring the area around the museum in a state of emergency, a small, but powerful localized earthquake had hit the building, and a nearby gas-pocket was leaking into the building, trying to explain any sighting of monsters.

When asked about the sinking, for a micro-expression he seemed almost furious for a moment, before putting on a sad face. “It seems that the earthquake accelerated the growth of a sinkhole under the museum, something that we have left the public uninformed about due to its minute nature, however, we, The city of Vale, have failed you all. We may lose a vaunted piece of history today, but we can’t get back people, as they are the future, and what we should be focused on.”

“What about the people stuck in the museum?”

LaCroix's eyes seemed to glow for a moment. “I’m afraid that anyone who hasn’t managed to escape, must be dead. Being exposed to gas for that long, they have surely perished, or suffered such severe brain-damage that they will expire soon anyway. As sad as it is, we can’t not risk more lives. Doubly so, when the Museum is likely to collapse at any moment.”

“Mr. LaCroix! What kind of gas is it, anyway? We haven’t-”

“No more, questions! I am needed elsewhere to help with the emergency, good night, and to those in mourning, you have my condolences.”

River felt pain in his temple, gritting his teeth. A building in a sinkhole does not uniformly sink in! The building was uniformly falling into the ground, this wasn’t a sinkhole!

A quick look at the chatroom revealed people calling BS, others that were at the Museum today, said they didn’t feel any shaking at all, just some anxiety and lightheadedness. A couple even admitting to seeing some strange figures.

Then, someone posted a link, Javier or something, linked to a live feed. 

River’s eyes opened. It was coming from inside the Museum, apparently they had some type of back of generators in there.

-----

Red jumped to the side, a bony fist crushing stone into dust next to her, her aura protecting her from stone shrapnel. There was a warmth like sunlight behind her eyes, as she focused the energy into her gaze staring at the hand, then a feeling of a warm and clear day hit her, as the purity of the sun focused into her eyes was shot forward.

The silver-blast sent shockwaves through the air, as tons of evil inky smoky exploding out toward the evening sky, layer after layer of millenia old bone was dissolved under her silver-eyes, greatly damaging the limb, but it’s age and soakage in Grimm power was still resisting her. 

It still had nearly broken it. “Hit it, ladies!” She cried valiantly, not at all squeaking! Speeding away, as ice, metal, lightning, and Yang crashing in like a meteor destroyed it, not just the hand, but the entire right arm!

“We’re nearly there! Just a bit more damage!” Crimson cried out, but Red frowned, she felt the floor drop again, as the sky seemed to grow just a bit further away from them. Her ears twitched, as she thought she heard something, like shouts?

-----

Jaune walked ahead of the rest, head twitching at every sound, trying to figure out what was going on today. Along with, why was this all happening? He had wondered that every second since this whole mess started. He felt a shake hit the building again, he had stopped keeping  count of them. Was it related to those magical girls? Or was it something else entirely?

He hated how clueless he was.

At least he knew it was related to the Grimm in some way, though how, was the question. Were they actually Grimm? Or were they part of some family tree, or … He didn’t know, there were so many blank spots to fill.

They didn't disappear like Grimm normally did, yet they still had the same masks and biology, and they had bones that broke. Worse, when he had the misfortune to peer into one the monster's bodies, he had seen organs.

That brought two strong options to mind, and he didn’t like either of them. Both of them involve people. Looking back at his group of survivors,they were all taking today differently, some were twitchy, others were breathing hard, and all were dirty. After today, he hoped they’d forget everything, as best they could.

A shadow moved next to him, a pair of red eyes giving away his visitor, it was sad how predictably they were. Then again, they probably didn’t have good muscle memory to work with, and if they did, it wasn’t suitable for swinging around claws.

Claws scraped against his shield, not even scratching the old metal of the shield, whether that was a testament to it’s craftsmanship or something else, Jaune couldn’t tell you. He stepped into its range, sword coming down on its arm, severing it.

 It was over in seconds, it’s head went down the hall. 

Jaune didn’t have the guts to go confirm his suspicions. The building shook again, the head fading away into the darkness.

He felt another pair of eyes on him from the shadows, they weren’t red, and they didn’t feel hostile. He looked at them, down the hallway, they stared off for a moment. Until they winked at him disappearing in the small motion.

“I’m losing my damn mind.” Jaune shrugged, going to meet back with the group.

Gathering them up, they resumed their march towards the door, eliminating any monsters that got in their way. With their fast pace they reached the doors quickly, just in time to see darkness climbing up the front of the door to the halfway point.

Jaune didn’t hesitate to open the doors, revealing the ground was at the middle of the door, instead of at the, well, the ground. “Come on! Get through there before you can’t get out at all!” He shouted, voice firm and echoing.

He pointed at the edge they could grab. “Get up there and leave! You all are not wanted here!” It didn’t take much convincing to have his soldiers leave. As one after the other they pulled themselves out of this hellhole.

Nora was given a boost by Ren, who wormed his way out between the ever smaller hole out. Soon, it was just him and Velvet, in what little light that remained, she gave him a small smile. “See you on the other side?”

“Yeah.” Jaune nodded. His ears twitched, it sounded like stomping.

He knelt down, giving Velvet a boost up. The sound was getting louder. It was heavy footsteps. Velvet nearly fell as Jaune essentially threw her through the gap. He looked behind himself and wished he hadn’t.

The lights were going out behind them. Not in the sense that they were being turned off, but something was moving under the lights, and they went out. That darkness was moving towards them. Something giant moved in it, as the sound of clacking was getting closer, a gigantic all-consuming noise, and what looked like fading coals burning were getting brighter.

Gripping the edge he pulled himself up, the gap growing smaller, struggling to squeeze through the gap.

“Help him!” Someone cried. 

Hands pulled at him trying to help him through. Ren at one side and Nora at the other, he was being squeezed through an inch at the time, almost there, given just enough time.

Enough time, they did not have. Something enormous grabbed Jaune by his legs, and its power exceeded any help that they could provide. Jaune laid his against the ground, relaxing his partially out body.

“Let go! I’ll be -” Was the last thing they heard him say, as he was pulled backwards into the building. He didn’t reemerge, as they stood there waiting for him to reappear, even as the sound of enormous struggle began, only to become more muffled. Any chance of him escaping to them was gone, as they watched with heavy-hearts as the gap shrunk and shrunk until no space remained, and soon, the building was gone.

----

The Magical Girls floated victorious over the greasy black smear that used to be their opponent, small pieces of bone floating around in it. They looked at it with narrowed-eyes, dirty figures, and a general air of exhaustion.

“That's it?” Yellow asked.

“Close enough,” Black answered.

Red floated up to the ceiling, seeing it was night and nobody remained within a thousand feet of the old museum. Except for vehicles with flashing lights next to some hazard tape that went around the front of the building. “Do you think that everyone got out ok?”

Crimson looked around. “We were so busy fighting that thing, -”

White floated out the building, pointing down at the nearly sunken building. “We don’t have time to check. Not unless we want to be pulled in with it.” She paused with a sigh. “Besides, with all the Grimm running around, it’s far too late for them. Face it, anybody left in there is dead.”

There was a moment of silence, as they floated up and away. “I don’t like this.” Yellow pulsated with flame. “We could have done more, could have done better.” Watching the building as it disappeared entirely into the darkness below. Once gone, the darkness returned down into the pit, leaving only an enormous crater where a piece of history had been erased.

For once, there was no fighting among the girls.

[august-anon]

Tickle Monster

sequel to Tickletober 2020 Day 13 - “Wake Up!”

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Someone on ao3 asked about a sequel to that fic literally in October of 2020, and mentioned it again in Jan of this year, and I’m finally posting this. I am so sorry this took ages, whoever you were, I hope you enjoy this lol

---

Fandom: Gravity Falls

Ship(s): Gen!!!!!!

Characters (lee/ler): Lee!Ford,Mabel,Dipper,Stan, Ler!Ford,Mabel,Dipper,Stan

Word Count: 1720 words

Summary: Dipper and Mabel complete their mission, distracting Great Uncle Ford, with flying colors. Unfortunately for them (and for Stan), Ford knows how to fight back.

[ao3 link]

ALSO: warnings for some light angst in the beginning because apparently i can’t write Ford as not angsty lol

------------------------------------

Ford sighed as he watched Stanley go, that lost, desperate look still in his eyes. He really didn’t know what to do to help him at this point, and that hurt more than Ford had been prepared for.

It seemed that he just kept failing people.

He started this whole thing. He came to Gravity Falls in the first place. He brought Bill into this world. He was foolish and naive and power-hungry enough to listen to Bill’s lies. He built the portal Bill wanted, not considering the dangers. And he failed to protect his family, Stan especially.

And now his own brother could barely remember him.

Ford forced himself out of his thoughts as he moved toward the refrigerator. He said he’d make breakfast, so that’s what he’d do. Eggs could be easy enough, maybe even omelettes? Or perhaps pancakes, they were probably easy, right? They were just flour and eggs… and maybe they had some sugar in them? He’d figure it out.

He let out a bitter smile as happy, childish laughter rang out from the attic. Stan was a far better great-uncle than he was, even with his lapses in memory. It wasn’t really all that surprising to Ford.

Ford hadn’t really made all that much effort to be good with the kids, after all. Yet another failure of his.

He continued to struggle with breakfast, his bowl of pancake batter looking more like foaming grey sludge than anything edible. It seemed his multitudes of knowledge didn’t extend to cooking. He was debating starting over, maybe trying to actually find a recipe somewhere in this old shack, when he heard tiny footsteps thundering down the stairs.

“Great Uncle Ford!” Twin voices rang out.

Ford turned away from the counter, plastering a smile on his face that was probably more of a grimace. Dipper and Mabel slid into the kitchen on socked feet, giddy and giggling. A far cry from the tear-streaked faces he saw when he checked on them at night, making sure they were still there and alive, and finding them curled together in one of their tiny twin beds, clearly shaken by nightmares.

“Hello, kids,” he said. “You’re rather awake for the early hour.”

Mabel gave him a mischievous grin. “We’ve been tasked with distracting you.”

Ford furrowed his brow. “What--”

The two launched themselves at him and Ford’s eyes went wide in shock. He reached out to catch them so that they wouldn’t slip and hit the floor (tile floor and heads did not mix, Ford remembered that well from tussling with Stanley back in the day), but in doing so he overbalanced himself, toppling backwards and taking the kids down with him.

Before he could even begin to process what had just happened, and just what Mabel had meant by distracting him, he had two tiny bodies on top of him, pressing him into the tile. They had matching devilish grins focused on him, and Ford wondered what the hell Stanley had told them, and whether or not he needed to get up and run.

“Grunkle Stan told us about a monster that you might not have in your journals,” Dipper said, leaning forward.

Ford scrunched his face up in confusion. Was this just a distraction, as they said, or was Dipper telling the truth? Just as he opened his mouth to ask for clarification, Mabel leaned forward as well.

“Yeah, yeah! It’s such a cool monster, too! You know what it is?”

Ford shook his head, playing along. “No, what is this monster?” Perhaps if he placated them, he could get back to making breakfast before Stanley came back down and saw his pitiful progress.

Dipper and Mable exchanged an evil glance and grinned down at him. They raised their hands, fingers shaped in claws and wiggling wildly, and Ford felt a spark of recognition run through him. His eyes widened before they even answered.

“The Tickle Monster!” They shouted in unison.

And then, before he could even blink or think to defend himself, he had four tiny hands wiggling into all sorts of sensitive places. Ford tossed his head back against the tile and snickered quietly, trying to keep the worst of his laughter in. He couldn’t let two children best him!

But Mabel’s fingernails were wreaking havoc on the nerves of his ribs and neck, and Dipper’s fingertips digging into his sides and stomach weren’t serving him much better. He forgot how uncoordinated he got when he was tickled, not having been subjected to it since before Stanley got kicked out when they were younger. His hands were flailing everywhere, unable to latch onto either twin and save himself from their playful torture.

“No no no, you’re doing it all wrong,” a voice called out from the entryway. 

Ford felt a mix of dread, excitement, and anticipation fill his belly when he saw Stanley standing there. It only grew when he saw the spark of recognition in his eyes as he stalked closer.

“You gotta do it like this,” Stanley told the kids, and unceremoniously stuffed his hands into Ford’s armpits, scribbling away.

Ford howled, curling in on himself as best he could with two almost-teens still sitting on top of him and Stan looming over top of them all. He cackled madly and he could feel the tears building up in his eyes the longer the playful torment went on. It was so embarrassing, so humiliating, so…

Fun.

It felt kind of nice to let loose and laugh like he was, something he hadn’t done in a long time. The fingers driving him insane left him with no chance to overthink things as he usually did. All he could do was laugh and squirm and gasp for air.

The tickling abruptly halted and Ford sucked in a much-needed breath. He was naive to think it was over, however, because Stanley only grabbed his wrists and pinned them above his head before grinning at the kids. A nervous, playful, fluttering feeling filled his stomach, and he shot a look down at the kids.

“Have at it,” Stanley said.

Dipper and Mabel laughed before darting forward, burying their hands into his armpits. Ford was lost to his hysteria once more, only this time it was worse. His hands were pinned, he could even pretend like he was trying to defend himself from their dancing fingers, and he was too weak from laughter to tug his hands back.

Just when Ford was finally reaching his limit, he tilted his head back and made teary eye-contact with Stanley. Stanley gave him a smirk and a wink before releasing his wrists and setting Ford free.

Ford shot up, still laughing, and tackled Dipper and Mabel to the ground, careful to cushion their fall and avoid any injuries.

“Do you know what’s even worse than a Tickle Monster?” He asked, voice hoarse from the laughter his vocal cords were no longer used to.

Dipper and Mabel were giggling and squirming, clearly having picked up on where this was going, but neither made an attempt to escape. They shook their heads.

Ford raised his hands, fingers curled threateningly into claws, just as they had done to him. “A six-fingered Tickle Monster.”

Dipper and Mable squealed as his hands darted forward, the two soon lost to childish shrieks and cackles as he tickled away. The wide grin still hadn’t left Ford’s lips, even as his cheeks and eyes began to dry from his own mirthful tears. He even let out a few more chuckles at particularly silly sounds the kids made.

Maybe he wasn’t such a failure with them, after all.

But there was still one thing missing from their morning full of laughter. Ford turned around, slowing his ticklish assault on the kids, searching out Stanley. He stood at the counter, a new mixing bowl in front of him, making something that looked a lot closer to pancake batter than Ford’s attempt was.

Oh well, can’t win them all.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook,” Ford growled playfully.

Stanley froze, his body tense, and he slowly turned around to face Ford, a nervous smile spreading across his lips. His hands were raised in surrender, and he looked ready to bolt at any moment.

“You were just so sad this morning,” Stanley tried to reason with him, “I thought the kids could help cheer you up.”

Ford raised an eyebrow. “If I remember correctly, you were rather melancholy earlier, as well.”

They stared each other down, trapped in their little stand-off as Dipper and Mabel giggled quietly behind Ford. Then, Stanley tried to bolt, but Ford was much faster, the two of them crashing to the floor in no time. He quickly got Stanley pinned underneath him.

“Any last words?”

Stanley scowled (though Ford could see the amusement dancing in his eyes, so he wasn’t too worried), but Ford never actually gave him the chance to speak. He dug his fingers in, skittering around with no rhyme or reason as he mentally catalogued Stanely’s tickle spots. Eventually, he settled on Stanley’s ribs, the left side, the second rib from the top (that always used to get him screaming), as well as the little patch of skin on the right side on Stanley’s stomach, just a couple inches under his ribcage (that always used to get him begging for mercy). Stanley yelled and burst out into wild laughter, shoving at Ford’s hands but being too weak to stop him.

“You little--” Stanley started to yell through his laughter, but Ford cut him off.

“Ah ah ah, there are children present, Stanley.”

Stanley only cackled louder. Though that could have also been due to the fact that Ford had upped his tickling.

But speak of the devil and he shall appear, for the kids chose that moment to again make themselves known. Dipper attached himself to Ford’s back, shoving his hands into Ford’s armpits and clumsily tickling away. Mabel, on the other hand, launched herself into Stanley’s chest and started scribbling away at his stomach and sides.

Alright, Ford thought. The kids want a tickle fight? I’ll give them a tickle fight. And he dove back into the fray.

Needless to say, breakfast soon became brunch and the Shack was filled with laughter for a long time to come.

[the-silentium]

Siren Song

Masterlist - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3

Fors is an Original planet. I do not give permission to people to use it for their own fics, the planet, the animals, the Nightmares, the lore or anything related to Fors. Thank you.

Pairing: Bad Batch x Reader

Words: 3025 words

Warnings: Blood, monsters, ANGST.

A/N:  Thanks to @shadow-hyder​ who helped choose who got hurt in this chap ~

Taglist:  @haloangel391​ / @lightning-wolffe​ / @cherrydemon5​ / @and-claudia​ / @clone-rambles​ / @mandaloriandin​

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"Wrecker. I knew you'd come to help me." 99 whispered through his comm.

Wrecker couldn't contain his excitement at his ori'vod calling out to him. He was alright, on this planet, away from the long-necks and their experiments, away from the dirty looks and degrading whispers, away from all the forced maintenance. He left the rainy planet like he always dreamt he would. 

For so long Wrecker ached for the reunion with his brother. He had so much to say to him, from his biggest explosion to date to his best prank on the regs with Crosshair and he couldn't forget to relate how he fought a giant snake that could have easily swallowed him whole in a single bite! 

He could already see 99 listening intently to each of his words, nodding and smiling as he would move his hands around to illustrate his words, because words weren't powerful enough to convey the power of the moment. 

Clone force 99 would be complete with its fifth member on board. All they needed to do was get him out of there with the rest of them. 

"That's not him! Guys!" 

For a split second, Wrecker had forgotten their newest teammate. Their cabur'ika. He was so wrapped up in helping his vod that he forgot everything else and let his body take control. His body knew what to do, fighting was in his blood. 

A new spark burned to life in his chest at the prospect of presenting you to his very wise sibling, maybe he could help you with your insecurities like he helped them all with theirs. 

"I know his voice Y/N! That's him!" He pushed forward, his team right behind him. 

You'd see soon, it was worth it. 99 was worth it. 

"Stay under the trees!"

He would have laughed at your words if he hadn't caught a glimpse of a man standing near a river. Trees were everywhere on this planet, you didn't have to worry. Instead, he forced his legs to move faster. 

A huff resonated through the comm just as 99 called again, the newfound fear in his voice made Wrecker's blood boil in worry and anger. 

He was almost there. He'd help. He'd save him. 

A nagging feeling plagued the back of his mind. It was just like when he forgot to close the light of the fresher one night and caused the ship to be inoperable for a couple of days or when he forgot Crosshair in a secluded village while on a supply run. He couldn't tell what was wrong, all he knew was that something wasn't as it was supposed to be. 

Wrecker got to the edge of the river, 99 just on the other side of the large angry stream. The ravine they had followed for a while was visible from his spot on the bank. It seemed they had moved a klick away from it and deeper into the jungle. The tall wall of rock and mud abruptly stopped and disappeared under a tumultuous waterfall that would be breathtaking in broad daylight. 

He doesn't see them, but Wrecker heard the soft steps of his brothers joining his sides. He didn't acknowledge their presence in the slightest, his eyes being glued to his elder kneeling on the ground clutching his chest, the grunts of pain leaving his mouth were too clear over the roaring water separating them. 

Without thinking he took a step forward, carefully setting foot in the deep river to reach the other side without getting carried away by the rapids. 

“Wrecker, what are you doing?” Hunter put a hand on his pauldron to keep him from going further into the water.

“He’s hurt!”

Without wasting a second, Wrecker harshly shrugged Hunter's hand away to venture into the raging water, fighting for his balance against the strong current pushing against his abdomen threatening to take him further through the jungle. Wrecker winced as static took over his comm, drowning the words of his team behind him. 

99's voice overflowed the nagging sound to encourage him forward, inciting him to grab the outstretched hand as soon as he was within reach. 

"Stay back." Wrecker ignored the help, he didn't want to pull his older brother into the river where he'd have no chance to survive. 

The ignored hand gripped his armpit in a useless effort to assist him, water dripped down his soaked blacks and armor, nurturing the grass below. 

"Are you okay 99?" Without wasting a second, Wrecker turned to his brother, already reaching for his frail shoulder. 

The sight squeezed his heart in nostalgia. There he stood, smiling just like the last time the Batcher saw him when they departed for their mission on Devaron. He even opened his arms like he always did whenever they’d all return from their assignments. This was him.

An urge to jump into the long-awaited embrace propelled his body forward to carefully wrap his strong arms around the fragile form of 99. Relief flooded his brain as soon as he felt arms wrapping around his own waist, numbing his senses to concentrate solely on this moment.

"Thank you for making all the way to me." He heard his voice in his comm, as clear as day, the background white noise abruptly muted as Wrecker's eyes widened in understanding. 

He managed to pull away slightly before the sight in front of him paralyzed his muscles. By fear, surprise or sadness, he couldn't decide which one had more control over his body. 

“Thank you for saving me Wrecker.” 99's lips stayed glued together despite the words echoing through the soldier's head. The once calming smile had lost all its warmth only to be replaced with a way more sinister grin. 

Half of 99- no, half of the monster disappeared under a layer of darkness slowly bleeding from its eyes, nose and mouth, the black goo covering its right side morphed into parts of someone else. Brown hair, a youthful smile, a broad muscular arm, they all appeared for a moment before the goo engulfed them again and changed over and over again, never truly setting on anything in particular. 

The shiver running up his spine brought the man to his senses long enough for his brain to order his body to move away from the threat. His chest separated from the smaller one as his feet stumbled backward. Unfortunately, his left hand didn't have such luxury. The liquid tightened around his fingers, crept over his palm to reach his forearm and slide under the sleeve of his blacks. 

He pulled and pulled again without any success. He was trapped. 

"So long…"

It was cold as death, enough to chill the giant to the bone. Bile raised in his throat as the sticky feeling crept up his skin. He tugged as hard as he could, but inches by inches the wicked sludge reached his elbow, gaining complete control over his arm. 

"It has been so long…" 

For some reason the tank of a man has never felt as small as in this instant, heterochromatic eyes staring up at him right in the eyes like his opaque visor wasn't even there. 

"We're so hungry." 

Before he could register the meaning behind his words, Wrecker went flying backward a few meters away from his initial standing spot, a heavyweight on his chest pinning him to the ground. 

Everything was happening too fast. Wrecker had some difficulties keeping up. That is until the unprotected skin of the underside of his upper arms burned worse than a blaster wound, his brain instantly knew what happened. 

With a yelp followed by a powerful kick, the clone tried to once again to dislodge the opponent clinging to him. His movements didn't send the gigantic thing rolling like he hoped, instead it merely shrieked in his face and flapped its cracked white wings to fly away, claws still locked around his arms. 

Fortunately for once, the beast doesn't get off the ground. Unfortunately, it meant that some parts of its prey had to go. 

Massive maws closed around his helmet, offering an absolutely atrocious view of the beast's mouth and throat. Wrecker would never admit it, but the sudden fear forced his eyes closed for a split second, protecting his fragile orbs by doing so.  Shards of his visor exploded under the assault of some particularly sharp teeth, scratching the sensitive skin around his eyes. 

This high level of panic was completely new for him and he didn't like it one bit. A nice adrenalin rush was one thing. This was far from the enjoyable spectrum. He wanted to yell for help, but who would hear his call? He was alone. 

The pressure around his head was increasing fast. Saliva covered his helmet, leaving Wrecker to blindly touch around his head for the maws, fingers slipping between the sparse teeth to force them open. The grip around his upper arms tightened, shooting a new wave of searing pain through his body as the claws dug deeper into his flesh. 

Ignoring his agonizing arms, he put more strength behind his movement and had the toothy vice open in a second. A well-placed kick on the bird sternum sent it flying backward, liberating his lacerated skin in the process. 

Hands cleaned his visor in a haste but stopped as soon as his fingertips started to tingle. The soft feeling soon morphed into full-on burning, prompting the soldier to wipe his hands onto the grass at his sides. 

Holes adorned the once intact tactical gloves, showing the damaged skin that it was supposed to protect. 

Before he could question the condition of his hands, a screech pulled him back to reality. 

The milky bird was big, easily four times his size with weird legs and two pairs of arms. The long white beak was pretty sharp with nasty teeth occasionally poking out, its maws opening frantically on a high pitch screech, its old-paper like wings flapping in anger at its side. 

Following the blue trail of bolts hitting the creature, the calls of his brother resonated through the comm without any interference as soon as his eyes landed on their offensive positions. 

His brothers. He remembered them now. He wasn't alone. They were here. 

"-ot responding." Tech 

"Wrecker! Come back here!" Wrecker winced at the very loud order coming from his sergeant. Apparently, it wasn't the first time he barked his instructions. 

"I'll get h-" Static filled his ears once again as 99 appeared at his side, hands wrapped around his pauldron.

"Don't leave me. Please Wrecker, help me.."  

"I'll hel-" His words were cut off by a sudden pull from behind, quickly followed by water engulfing his armor. 

Gasping, Wrecker tried to keep his head above water by instinct but failed miserably. The strong current left him totally helpless, the force of the water digging into his injuries to make him totally unable to move them around to get to the surface. Where was the surface? He turned on himself so much that nothing made sense anymore. 

A pull on his back stopped his body from turning in all directions, halting his quick descent down the river. Multiple hands pulled him out of the stream and wasted no time to pull him upright. 

"Wrecker can you hear me?" Hunter shook his shoulder forcefully. 

Too soon Wrecker tried to lift himself up using his arms to reassure his brother. All he managed to do was to almost faceplant into the wet dirt beneath his torso. 

"99." Was all he could say. He still felt a pull towards the other bank where he knew his oldest brother was still waiting for him. 

"There's nothing there. It's not real." Hands lifted him by the armpits to take him back under the cover of the trees. "It was a trick."

"No he's right there!" The clone was getting frustrated as everyone ignored his hand pointing behind them focussing instead on keeping him upright. 

A shriek pierced the night followed by a sudden splash of water, causing the three soldiers to jump simultaneously. Wrecker turned just in time to see the bird emerging from the river and fly away with something bright in its mouth.

Once the beast disappeared over the horizon, every memory repressed by the weird fog obscuring his brain came back to the front of his mind. Tears ran down his cheeks as he remembered that 99 died in a Seppie attack on Kamino, that he wasn't there to help. 

He had to bite his bottom lip to keep his whimpers from escaping, the pain of losing his brother a second time was way worse than it originally felt. Whatever it was back there felt so real, so warm, it told him exactly what he needed to hear and acted like the one and only 99. Deep down maybe he knew already but allowed himself to be blinded by hope. 

And hope crushed his heart in the more twisted way possible. 

Crosshair was the first to let go of his brother when they got deep enough into the line of trees, moving his attention to the grapple fixed under his rifle to put it away. So that's what pulled him into the river. 

"Are you okay Wrecker?" Hunter's worry pulled at his already suffering heart. 

"I am." He weakly mumbled, quieting down the hisses of pain menacing to erupt from his throat. 

"We don't have much time." Hunter carefully lowered himself to set his brother at the foot of a large tree. "We have to patch you up and search for Y/N before anything that might 've heard the noises comes this way." 

 Wrecker perked up at the mention of your disappearance, his eyes roamed the surroundings to get a glimpse of your shirt painted in blood and guts that always gave him a tiny heart attack every time he looked at it. He never thought not seeing that shirt would fill him with dread. 

"What happened?" He asked just as Tech removed his helmet to toss it at Crosshair for examination. 

The jungle looked way more terrifying without the night vision helping his sight. Without it, every shadow looked like an Algax silently staring with its inexistent orbs. 

"We don't know. We were too…" Tech trailed off, quickly assessing the wounds on his arms. "focussed to notice anything." 

Wrecker winced at the same time Crosshair did, although for a totally different reason. Tech stopped poking at the edges of the wounds to stuff some gauze pads on the bleeding lacerations before wrapping them with a sterile wrap. 

"Cross?" He asked his brother that stopped analyzing the helmet to lose himself in his thoughts, eyes fixed on one of the holes in the visor. 

He seemed taken aback for a moment but quickly recovered, rolling the customized helmet in his hands. 

"Night vision stopped working on one of the lenses. Too damaged. The front is melted at some places," He turned the helmet over to trace a long crack at the back of the head. "and it may not resist a hit to the right place." 

The frustration in his tone wasn't lost on anyone. Clearly, the helmet wasn't the subject of his irritation and no one had to ask for the truth. They were all prey of the same guilt. 

"I'm sorry. She told us not to follow voices." Wrecker averted his eyes, not able to look at his fuming brother anymore. Whatever happened to you was his fault. If only he hadn't followed the voices, you wouldn't be missing. 

Bile raised in his throat as his mind wandered on the dreaded questions. What happened? Were you in danger? Or hurt? Or dead? 

From his experience on this planet, Wrecker knew it was safe to assume that you crossed paths with a monster of the night. This was a certainty. All there was to speculate on was your wellbeing. 

"Her tracker is still working, we'll find her." Tech applied a small bacta patch that he pulled out of his belt onto the palm of Wrecker's hand, the latter hissing in pain. 

"You're lucky the water washed off any remaining chemical that burned your skin or else we'd see some bones if the state of your helmet is anything to go by." He admired the edges of the burns that weren't covered by the patch. "I'll wrap your fingers together to keep them from moving on each other so refrain from closing your hand. You'll only damage it more."

"But I won't be able to shoot!" He frowned, teeth clashing together as Tech put some gauze between his fingers and wrapped the bandages tightly together. 

"Blasters don't work anyway." Hunter grumbled as he turned back to them, letting go of the hair at the back of his neck to face his team. 

"But light does." The engineer got on his feet to help Wrecker, offering his forearm to pull him up.

"Light?" 

"I threw an emergency light stick at it." 

"How did you know it would chase it?" Wrecker pulled on his helmet that Crosshair held out to him. 

Having only one night vision lens would make it difficult for him to continue, hopefully, it wouldn't slow him down too much or cause him to miss some monster out there. He couldn't be more of a burden than he already was at the moment. 

"I didn't. It was merely a theory." He typed away at his vambrace, missing Wrecker's bewildered expression. "And I was only partially correct. They indeed are reactive to light, but they do not fear it as I initially thought. Turns out that light enrages them. It gave up on you in order to eat the stick." He explained in his signature matter of fact tone.

Before anyone could add to the previous conclusion, Tech continued. 

"I got her position. She's close” The corners of Wrecker’s lips lifted slightly. They could track you, everything would be fine from here. You weren’t lost. “and unmoving." The whispered last words rang loud and clear in all the clones' ears.

Wrecker's breath wasn't the only one to abruptly stop.

[paperbagpetrichor]

Hey, I was wondering if you could do a Kakyoin x female reader, but it's "Rubber Soul" Kakyoin. Like with his strange behaviour and that, the reader notices something's wrong with Kakyoin and tries to figure it out? I thought it would be interesting and I know you would do an amazing job. Thank you.

[ I’m so so so sorry for the wait that this took;; I really hope you enjoy. ] You knew something was off the instant you felt a sudden wind blow past you.  At first, you had no idea where it had come from.  Jotaro and Anne were still in front of you, and Kakyoin hadn’t moved - yet.  Stand still far ahead of him, he tripped a strange man, moving so quickly it was like the cherry-haired boy had teleported rather than ran.  If you’d blinked, you were sure you would’ve missed it.  You had no idea what was going on, and your confusion was only heightened by the menacing threats Kakyoin suddenly started hurling at the man.  Eyes shifting from Kakyoin, then to Jotaro, then Anne, didn’t show much of anything.  It looked like the young girl and stoic boy were both shocked out of their minds.  Granted, so were you.  Within seconds he’d lifted the man above his head, arching the stranger’s back and beginning to...what the hell was he doing?  “Kakyoin!  Let him go!” 

Voice ringing in tandem with the stranger’s screaming, you raced over to your seemingly possessed friend only for Jotaro to overtake you and slug him across his shoulderblades.  “Hey - what the hell was that?” you demanded, letting the black-haired teen take care of the strange man and leaving yourself to care for the one who’d seemed to go through some sort of psychotic episode.  Instead, he completely ignored you, attempting to explain his actions to Jotaro and Anne, back facing you as his voice, oddly cold and nearly robotic, was interrupted by the laughter of excited children.  Still, you were focused on Kakyoin despite the distraction, especially as he let out a humorless chuckle.   

The talk of being exhausted worried you, though.  It wasn’t like this was easy.  You’d already seen (and participated in) countless battles with the others, and with the sun pulsing down on you all like a giant flame, it would’ve made sense if he’d had some form of heat stroke.  But...if that was the case, it made no sense that he could’ve taken that man down so effortlessly.  As Jotaro started to head off, you approached Kakyoin, putting a slightly-shaking hand to his forehead.  “You feel hot.  Maybe we should head back to the hotel for now.”  You attempted a smile.  “After all, we’ll still be here for a bit tomorrow.  We can come enjoy the scenery then.”

It was like he hadn’t heard a word you said.  Mechanically, he turned on his heels and headed towards the tree that the children had been playing around just moments earlier.  Feeling out of place, you began to follow after Jotaro, only for Anne to point out that Kakyoin wasn’t following.   

The instant you saw the beetle clenched in his jaw, you practically shoved Anne in Jotaro’s direction, blocking his view of her and steeling yourself.  Had - had that really been a beetle?  Why would he…? 

“This coconut juice is delicious.  Why don’t you try it, [y/n]?”  His eyes, so devoid of the usual life within them, shining only with what seemed to be some invisible haze as he stared at you, smile more like a sneer, he handed you his drink, following after Jotaro. 

Something in your gut screamed suspicion and the instant Kakyoin left you dumped the coconut in the nearest bin. 

When you arrived to the party, Anne was screaming, and Jotaro was nowhere to be seen.  Before the question could even rise in your throat you saw a hand clinging onto the balcony, body dangling down dangerously above a staggering drop that surely no one could survive, even if there was a lake below.  Your stand was out in a flash, helping Jotaro back up, and in the instant you did you shared a nonverbal agreement.  While Jotaro spoke with Kakyoin, you and Anne fell back, crouching to her side with your hands on her shoulders.  “Get to a phone.  Call Mr. Joestar and Avdol.  Tell them it’s urgent.”  The small girl nodded, a whole new form of fear flashing across her features. 

You didn’t stop to look back as you rushed over to the remaining two.  It was painful to watch Jotaro pack such a punch into the man you’d begun to develop feelings for, but that didn’t matter.  Both you and Jotaro knew better.  This wasn’t Kakyoin.  Not mentally, at least.   

No.  This was someone entirely different.  Something entirely different. 

Surely enough, the instant he’d recovered himself from being thrown into the cable car, he refuted, in a voice as though two people spoke through him at once, “‘Possessed’ isn’t quite right.”  Before he even mentioned it you stepped back involuntarily as you saw his head rise to the top of the car, body suddenly somehow larger than Jotaro’s.  This had to be the work of the stand. 

“Listen to me.”  You cut off whatever Jotaro was about to say, shouldering in front of him.  “Kakyoin, I don’t know what the hell is happening here.  But I do know that this - ” you gestured back to the drink vendor, then to Kakyoin’s gigantic body, “ - is not you.  I don’t know what’s going on, but you have to listen to me.  Doesn’t my voice sound familiar?  Doesn’t Jotaro’s, and Anne’s?” 

For a moment the man looked puzzled. 

“If you won’t believe in them, you can believe in me.”  You slowly approached him, hands out in front of you, stand cautiously at your side, continuing, “It’s me.  It’s [y/n].”  To your relief something like recognition snapped both his eyes and mouth open, staring wordlessly at you.  The two of you were at a standstill, both now in the small cable car.  “Nori, I know you’re somewhere in there,” you whispered, “you can fight this.  Just like you fought against Di--” and then a sharp sound, an agonizing pain ripping through your arm, and your world went black. 

When you came to, Kakyoin was gone.  Completely.  You could’ve spotted his red hair from a mile away, and it was nowhere to be found.  What you saw instead, as you slowly tried to raise yourself up, fire shooting through your arm and forcing you to let out a gasp of pain, was a shirtless man, now staring down at you, with a mass of rippling, yellow sludge draping across his neck like a cape.  Within an instant the man had you by the neck, running his fingernail absentmindedly across your throat. 

“What did you do with Kakyoin, you bastard?” you shouted, using your good shoulder to shove him against the wall of the car and giving you enough time to pull out your stand.  “What did you - ” 

Something filled your throat.  It was burning like acid, pulsating against the roof of your mouth and tongue and teeth as you doubled over, coughing, hacking into your hands only for them each to become coated in the yellow surface.  You tried to speak but the stand user had no such intentions of allowing you.  “That’s right,” he began slowly, a satisfied look growing on his face as the yellow mass began to consume you, slowly but surely, “I almost forgot about you.  I thought you were dead.”  In a bone-chilling murmur, he added, “The good ones know when to stay silent.  But no matter,” he threw his hands up.  “You’ll be dead soon either way.  And as for that?”  Suddenly you felt a sharp pull jerk you forwards, nearly slamming you into the man’s chest, taking you a moment to realize his hands weren’t on you but rather your stand, breathing irregular and body tense.  “You may as well put it away.  My stand has no weaknesses, after all.” 

“Ka...Kakyoin,” you sputtered, “what the hell did you d-do to…?”  But the yellow mess had stuck your mouth together before you could finish. 

The man paid you no attention.  Rather, he glanced at something behind you, something you couldn’t see.  “Ah, it appears your friend still doesn’t quite grasp the situation.”  Jotaro?  “My stand’s got a hold of you that you can’t escape, and you say you’ll - ” 

He wasn’t able to finish his sentence because you knew you were at an almost, if not definitive, fatal disadvantage.  You didn’t have the energy to spare to look for Jotaro, but if he was in any condition like you, there wasn’t much he could do, either.  But every stand had one weakness.  Something in common.  Something very, very simple.

Death.

Even if it meant taking yourself down with him.

You didn’t care when your hands became completely immersed in the lightning that was the yellow monster.  All you did was push. 

In what appeared to be a moment of panic he somehow increased the agony that his stand spread across you, but when the shards of glass punctured straight through his temple from the fall into the water, after your body being encased in an unbearable layer of pain from hitting the lake with such velocity, as soon as you could, you were once again able to move.  Even with an injured arm, you’d managed to break the glass of the car with his head, sending him - and consequently you - both flying to the lake down below.  There wasn’t much time left.  Only the upper portions of your head in addition to your lower body remained untouched by his sludge, and the density of it sent you sinking far lower and faster and deeper into the water than him.  But your stand managed to snag his foot, and as you sunk, he sunk with you.  Something else hit the water behind you, forcing your grip on the man to let go no matter how hard you fought back with what minimal remaining strength you had.  It was all but useless to think that the other splash was made by Kakyoin.  But you were shoved away by a hand you couldn’t quite see, pushing you up with enough force to combat the weight swallowing your body, and by some miracle when you thrashed your legs, you found your head bobbing above the water, gasping for air and nearly choking on the amount of water you’d swallowed.  Salt and blood and agony ran across your tongue - and then something vanished. 

You were able to keep yourself afloat. 

Senses slowly returning to you, you pushed off in the opposite direction, relieved at how easily and quickly you’d spotted the other side of the water.  Whatever had shoved you had done so with incredible strength.  Desperate, you just barely managed to worm your way out, onto the concrete, heaving.  It took a solid few moments for you to regain your senses.  By the time you had, you just managed to lift your head and face down whatever awaited you on the other side. 

Jotaro…? It must’ve been Star Platinum that had hit you, because, in an instant, a flurry of unrestrained purple punches flew from Jotaro onto the bloody stand user, water staining dangerously red around him as Jotaro sent him flying back, with a final hit, landing with a sickening crack on the pavement just behind you.  You wasted no time checking if the man was still alive.  For now, you had to escape.  You had to find Kakyoin. 

You struggled with only being capable of using one arm to swim.  Your chest burnt and you were all but doubled over into yourself from the land, one leg hardly capable of thrashing at all.  It was undeniable that the other was broken, just beneath the shoulder, and as the water shaded scarlet, you began to feel the weight of your injuries.  The only thing that kept you going was the beating of your heart and pressure in your soul to find Kakyoin. 

Thankfully, about halfway in, Jotaro met up with you, hauling you back out of the water with him.  He inspected you - a few glass shards dotted your hands, arms, and face, and of course the way one of your arms hung disjointedly at your side was unmistakable.  “You have to get to a doctor.” 

But before you could so much as think about Jotaro’s words, you heard your name being called, louder and louder with each passing second, and as you propped yourself up into a sloppy stance, still struggling with your balance and barely able to hold yourself upright, the sight that you’d so perilously fought for came into vision, slowing down and face straining with shock as Kakyoin took in the sight of you in. Bloodied and broken, but still beautiful, clearly unsteady and swaying dangerously from side to side, he reached out for you, careful to avoid what looked like a fractured arm and punctures of glass, pulling you softly into his arms, heart racing out of his chest.  “[Y/n]?  What happened?  Are you alright?” 

“I’ll...I’m gonna be okay,” you sputtered, falling limp against him, grateful for the support.  “Just glad you’re okay.”  After a moment of silence, still fighting for air, you asked almost hopelessly, voice cracking, “You’re okay, right?  Please just...be okay.” 

He had absolutely no idea what you were talking about, but as his eyebrows furrowed in even more concern as he vaguely spotted Jotaro approaching the two of you, he nodded, completely uncertain, placing his best attempt at a reassuring kiss on your forehead.  “Yes.  Yes, I’m alright, of course I am.”  His fear-stricken face said otherwise, but physically, he was fine, much to your relief.

“We have to get her bandaged up,” Jotaro interjected.  “She’s gotta get to a hospital; the old man - probably everyone - won’t know what to do with her.”   Kakyoin sent him a silent glance, but it was one he’d seen before, only cast when Kakyoin was with you.  The black-haired teen took his leave to the phone where Anne stood, petrified, to call for an ambulance.  

Kakyoin held you close for a few more moments, silent, one arm around your waist and the other cupping your predominantly non-injured cheek, trying to calm himself and quell his fears - both for Jotaro and himself, but mostly for you - as he felt you against him.  When he pulled away, you thankfully seemed to be back on your feet, at least as much as could be expected.  He didn’t mind for a second that you still leaned against him, good arm clutching his tightly.

You coughed, still feeling the pain down your throat even though its origin had long since gone.  Kakyoin put something in your hand.  One of the coconut drinks you’d been planning on trying earlier. 

“It’s not much, but you should have it,” he urged, offering as reassuring of a smile as he could.  “I was surprised at how good they are.  Oh, and those cherries are delicious.” 

As you downed the drink slowly, still out of breath, Kakyoin taking you in his arms once more for support, you nodded, the first genuine smile of the day spreading across your lips as you managed to fall back into some sort of normalcy, or at least the ability to properly hold your own.  There was nothing but the cherry left, and you presented the coconut back to him.  “Here.  You can have it.” 

“As tempting as that is, it’s all yours, [y/n].”

[b4kuqo]

just my thoughts on how i feel about the wonder boys & bakugo. this is completely my own view, i’m not saying that these have to be the case. i’m not good with words either so if i sound illiterate, i’m sorry lmfao.

feel free to read. i’m just chattin’

okay so, one thing i’ve noticed is that

midoriya focuses on becoming a hero to save.

bakugo focuses on becoming a hero to win.

at the end of the day both want to be strong heros who end up victorious. though each of their desires are slightly different due to what they’re mainly focusing on when defeating a villain.

bakugo and midoriya both looked up to all might as children. keep in mind, they’re so fucking young at the time. even so they both admire the strong man, each of them seem to have a different perspective of the hero. bakugo, focusing more on all might’s physical aspects (him being strong and beating ass to win).

and midoriya focusing more on his mental aspects (the want to save people with a smile. just felt like i had to add that ‘with a smile’ lmaooo)

but at the end of the day, they both want to be a hero. just as midoriya said in the movie,

a slight difference, but nonetheless the same.

and knowing that, makes constantly think of this panel.

like i said, bakugo’s mindset is more of.. you must be strong to win.

and midoriya looked up to that. his strength and his desire and will to become even stronger. as a quirkless boy, he couldn’t help but admire this boy his age that oozed with such a strong ass vibe. ik y’all remember when katsuki beat those older kids asses too, shiii i’d look up to him too

to midoriya, you do what you must to save.

being strong is beneficial, but he cares about saving lives the most. makes sense since he was quirkless whilst trying to save bakugo when being attacked by a sludge monster villain thingy. he tried to save his childhood friend nonetheless even so the lack of his power.

he has a good heart. he has good intentions.

and that’s what bakugo fears

or just cannot stand. (in the panel)

and i may have a understanding as to why all might thinks such a way.

in season 4, i forgot which epsiode, bakugo says something that catches my eye. he speaks on how he was raised.

of course this contributes to the story of himself and how it affects midoriya and his’ relationship. we all know the sad past between the two boys. to put it shortly, bakugo constantly terrorized and bullied midoriya. firstly, let’s focus on why this could’ve occurred. apparently bakugo wasn’t always so hotheaded when young, and that should be able to be determined by the information in this panel.

when bakugo first got his quirk, everybody was hyping him up. i think it got him geeking fr 💀 well he WAS a child at the time, i don’t expect him to be that humble of his flashy quirk. most kids love attention. and it caused him to become very confident. a little bit cocky as well. he believed he was so strong at the time. and of course those around him hyping him up had a influence on that attitude he gained.

now with that improval of others and with the ability to finally control this flashy quirk, he still had that dream. that dream to be a strong hero like all might. a strong hero that wins. and with that realization, he became more cockier by the fucking minute i’m looking at u middle school bitchsuki.

and with all the praise from others, who would look down on katsuki? who could’ve?

apparently, midoriya.

it was all just a misunderstanding. but remember, they’re young. they’re simple minded.

i’m not saying that makes everything that happened fine, but you must take the time and reasoning into consideration.

as the strongest, bakugo seemed to think that he doesn’t need help. if he gets helped, he isn’t strong. he couldn’t handle it himself. if he couldn’t handle it himself, he couldn’t win. and once he fell off that log and midoriya dared to raise out his hand to help the boy who fell, their different perspective clashes against each other.

bakugo immediately thought he was looking down on him. his childish mind went straight pass the fact that a friend was simply trying to assist him. that’s what made it so childish. he didn’t want that assistance. he thought it wasn’t needed, especially not with the power he had. not with the strength in general he had. not if he was going to be the number 1 hero who defeats all. and it caused him to overlook midoriya’s kindness.

bakugo was worrying about being strong.

strength. the thing that quirkless midoriya admired

midoriya was worrying about his friend.

being kind. the thing that bakugo didn’t really get due to focusing so much on his perspective.

he saw it in a whole different view. the fact that midoriya was quirkless, didn’t make it any better for bakugo. that just made it even more insulting to him.

and so, the bullying began.

back to what i stated about the way bakugo was raised, i think if he wasn’t raised based on solving things with violence.. he wouldn’t have bullied midoriya. especially because he’d be more vulnerable and would speak rather than resolving in being physical.

just showing this scene to show y’all how violence is truly what he resolves too. it’s how he releases shit.

amyways, notice how even so those little back up buddies of bakugo’s praised him too, but didn’t help him. yet out of the kindess of midoriya.. even so he praises him as well, he wants to help bakugo. he knows he’s strong, but he still wants to help. cause he cares about him.

and i don’t think bakugo was used to that. (bakugo seemed to grow up on “tough love.” i do believe mitsuki loves him, but he’s clearly a mama’s boy and .. mama a lil’ bit violent. just how he was raised. midoriya is more filled with strictly LOVE without the tough.)

which also causes him to react how he reacts.

and as all might said, bakugo feared his heart.

in this world, we often fear things we tend to not understand.

bakugo didn’t understand why’d he constantly chase after him. he didn’t understand how midoriya strived and wished to be a hero even so he was quirkless. he didn’t understand midoriya’s sweetness and thoughtfulness. he didn’t understand why midoriya would treat him this way and because he didn’t get it, on his own he determined it was just a way to belittle him.

bakugo didn’t understand.

and though it took him a while, it honestly make sense how he’s growing into a more mature mindset at the moment. i myself was still childish just as bakugo during middle school. it was only until high school, i improved my mindset.

people are so focused on what occurs but don’t look as to WHY this may occur. it sucks yeah, we know. but, that’s what makes the story so intriguing and realistic. this HAPPENS in real life.

personally, i went through this growing up. it’s sad to say but i heavily relate to bakugo and his attitude and actions. not proud of it, but that’s why his character seems so understandable to me.

bakugo could preach how much he hates midoriya, but he doesn’t.

we all say shit we don’t mean.

there’s more than what the eye just sees.

bakugo’s actions say so much more than just the shit he spouts.

he’s all “blah blah blah fuck deku,” til deku is FUCKED and bouta die.. then it’s all AYOWUSSGOINONIWASJUSTPLAYIN—

LIKE BOOOOY U DO TOO MUCH UUUGH 😩😩

anyways their story is so complex. and i have so much more to say but it’s so hard to explain.

anyways, i love them. i really really love them.

[occult-castiel]

A thread with no end

Cool metal lighter in hand, he finally takes a glance at the reason for all of this. 

It's small, swallowed whole by the thick yellow clothes Sam has it in. It yawns, puppy-like, and fixes his wide eyes on Dean.

Blue. Big and impossibly blue. Its shades too light, closer to ice than ocean, but it pulls something loose in him. It's — it's almost like —

When Jack is born, he doesn't come out fully grown.

[Part One]

[Ao3]

Chapter 2

When the sharp edges of adrenaline settle, the last couple of days are a blur to think about. The absence of it is always its own kind of tired — aches become apparent again. His temples sting. All thoughts are filtered through sludge. His stomach gurgles out loud groans. The reminder is a desperate attempt to make bodily functions matter again, but the desire for food is numb. If anything it makes him sick.

He shakes his head, uses his free hand to blanket his face, pinch the bridge. Trapped under the rough pressure, his tear ducts throb. But it’s all right. It’s fine.

Fucking peachy. 

Sloppy and mechanical, as Dean pulls the two of them off the ground. He doesn't look at the embers. The ash. His joins cry against all movement, each jagged step a chore. What should be solid ground slips loose under his boots. He has to catch himself with each half-stumble towards the house. Little snivels turn to full body whines, and Dean doesn't blame the kid. It can't be fun to get jerked around by some idiot that forgot how to walk right. 

The door juts open with a creak, and whatever course of action he might've tried to take vanishes. 

Unfiltered sunlight glimmers in through the curtainless window. Dust particles dance in yellow above the table where it's — it’s just empty now. His last pitstop. The last place Dean would ever get to look. To touch. Legs on autopilot, he trudges over. 

Light glistens off the table's glossy finish. Glints against the discarded keyring Sam somehow remembered to salvage. Carefully, he skims the tips of his fingers over the cool surface, and dread sits like a rock in his stomach. It was warm, right after. But the air has long since leeched any heat Cas left behind. 

Throat tense, he cups the keyring under his palm. Tightens his fist around it until the metal digs in and his arm trembles. 

It's not fair. None of this is fair. They used to have more allies. Friends. Something they could fall back on after so long of having nothing, but none of it even lasts. Like the universe has decided The Sam and Dean Adventure just ain't multiplayer. 

"Dean?" 

He shoves the keys in his pocket. "Yeah. Down here." 

Sam clunks down the steps and gives Dean a tight smile. Grey bags under his eyes highlight the bloodshot tendrils. His whole body slumped in on itself, the exhaustion of the last however-the-fuck long hitting him like a brick. Maybe he looks that bad too. 

Over one shoulder Sam has the world's largest baby bag — lime green and burgeoning with diapers. The zippers stuck halfway around. It thunks when it hits the floor, and Sam shakes a bottle. "Made some formula. There's an extra in the side pocket." 

"Thanks." Dean takes it. "Gonna have to toss the other one. Stuff can only sit out an hour." 

Sam doesn't say anything to that, just scrapes a chair to the table, plops down, and buries his face in his hands. That's okay. Silence suits Dean just fine. 

He repositions the baby in his arms, cradles the head against his shoulder so he's more upright. The kid latches on to the plastic nipple with ease. 

The last time he fee a baby was a lifetime ago in some stranger’s home, babysitting with an ex-angel post attempted-murder. He and Cas had straightened out his not-dates house, and the baby started fussing. The bottle was already made. He didn’t think about it when he started feeding the kid. When Cas saw him, he gave Dean a pleased smile and said you're good at this. 

It jolted his pulse. Compliments had a way of hitting him funny, but right then? In the low light of a picture-perfect suburban home? Right from the very human Cas who has sex and goes on dates and looks at Dean like he’s worth something? 

Neck warm and mind blank, he offered to help Cas do it right without thinking. 

And it was good, the light touches, soft adjustments that weren't necessary. But Cas never dressed down that much, so it was better than good. Dean spent the whole time thinking about how thin his cotton shirt was. Cas was smaller without the layers, and the warmth of him unfiltered. He tried to peel his hands away, but it was like he couldn't stop. Angel or mud-monkey, Cas felt strong and whole. 

The comfort of the words stuck with him for days. The feel of Cas underneath him never left. 

God, he should be here now. 

The baby’s pudgy face grimaces, and Dean moves the bottle back until it evens out again. 

"We need to figure out what we're doing." Sam's palms muffle his voice. 

"We're going home. Welcome to the joys of parenthood. Here’s to hoping it doesn't kill us during puberty." 

"It has a name." Sam drops his arms to his sides. "Jack. Kelly made videos on her laptop for him." 

Dean rolls his eyes. "Well ain't that just lovely?" 

Sam's jaw drops. "Dean."  

He's two steps away from being the spitting image of some scandalized Victorian chick, and it crawls under Dean's skin. 

"What? Jack here is the son of Satan, Sam. Fucking pardon me for not caring about mommy’s little home videos," Dean says. The baby — Jack, whatever — whimpers. Body tense, Dean slowly slides the bottle from his mouth. 

"He's a baby, not a monster. And I'm just saying we don't have to — to tuck our tails and go home." 

White spit-like liquid dribbles from Jack's mouth. Dean sighs. 

"Fan-freakin'-tastic. I forgot babies did this crap." Dean sighs, storms over to the table, and places the bottle down with a hard clank. "I'm not seeing an array of options here. We can't exactly put a Nephilim up for adoption. Or hire a babysitter." Carefully, he brushes off Jack's mouth with the color of his onesie. It’s probably the cleanest thing they have to do it with.

"There's Mom. If the portal was opened once, there's gotta be a way to do it again. Maybe the Book of the Damned, or the Demon Tablet..." Sam perks up. "We could try and get Donatello to help —” 

"Okay, I'm gonna stop you there." Dean lays Jack flat against his shoulder and pats his back. "First of all, you really want a soulless dude and Lucifer's kid bumping shoulders? Don't think they could be, I dunno, a bad influence on each other?" Jack releases a puff of air and Dean adjusts him back down. He levels a hard stare at Sam. "Second of all: Moms dead. Nothings gonna help that." 

Sam doesn't miss a beat. "You don't know that." 

Buzzing vibrates from Dean's pocket. He yanks it from his pocket for it. "Pretty sure I do. Lucifer ganked her the minute the portal closed." 

"You can't —" 

Unknown. He sends the asshole to voicemail. 

Sam shakes his head. Sighs. "Whatever. Who was that?" 

"Not Donatello." Well, it could've been. But whatever. He grabs the baby bag, then slings the lime green wrecking ball of a bag over his shoulder. "You've got Baby's keys. I'm taking the truck." 

The coach squeaks. Before Dean can make it out the door, Sam grabs the strap. The force yanks him in place. Dean swivels around and glares. Sam drops his hand and gives Dean a weary look. 

"Can we just talk about this?" 

Dean swivels around. "I don't know what you want from me. Crowley's dead. Kelly's dead. Cas is —" Pain pangs his chest, a little twinge that sends pin-pricks through his torso, down his arms. His eyes dart away and land on the table. The discarded, half-finished bottle sits just outside of the sunlight’s path. "Mom’s gone. We even lost Rowena. So I'm gonna take the kid, find a motel the next state over, and put up whatever sigils I can to let the dick brigade know they aren't welcome. Rinse and repeat until we’re back home." 

Sam scoffs, but whatever energy he had left is burned out. "Whatever. We'll talk later." 

"Unlikely." 

By the time Dean walks over to the table and grabs the bottle, Sam's halfway up the stairs. 

Dean pushes past Sam and grabs the bottle. By the time he walks through the door, Sam's halfway up the stairs. 

Ash has blown around the yard, smeared it in grey. Eyes downcast, pointedly away from the remnants, he beeline for the truck. Wind whistles by and smears ash across the lawn. Dean stares at the mustard-colored wet spots on Jack's clothes instead. 

Cars are like a testament to the owner. The truck is immaculate. The burgundy shines — there’s not a spec of dirt marring the strips of pearl-white. 

Dean doesn't bat an eye at the car seat. It’s green. Of course it’s green. His breath doesn't catch at the stupid cartoon bee sticker smiling at him on the car seat’s side.  And he doesn't think about Cas. 

Not him stumbling through a Walmart visit to buy the thing. God, he bets the nerdy little guy compared brands, sifted through online reviews in the middle of the aisle. He doesn’t picture how pleased Cas must've been at finding a pack of sticks, of all things. How the rest of them are most likely sitting in the glovebox. How it was probably the last enjoyable moment he had. Dean doesn't think — he doesn't. Merely shrugs the baby bag off onto the floorboard, buckles Jack in, and clicks the door closed. 

Sweat slick forehead pressed against the doorframe, Dean squeezes his eyes shut. 

The last conversation he had with Cas is a blur. An actual conversation, not stress-filled bickering over the newest pile of shit dumped on their doorstep. 

Dean tries to swallow, but the motion stops halfway through, and there’s nothing there to force down. 

The last movie night he'd managed to drag Cas into was over a month ago. It might’ve been the last time where either of them were reasonably happy. The last time his lips would tilt up in that small way that knots Dean's stomach. It isn’t fair. It's all wrong, and there’s no way to fix it. No magic is strong enough to bring an angel back, The only witch that could’ve tried is dead too. And any power Heaven could spare wouldn’t be used to help him. There’s only one shot to take, and it's the same useless one everyone’s thought of trying at some point. 

Dean grabs the side of the truck bed and turns his head towards the sky. He sighs. Here goes nothing. "Okay, Chuck. Or God, whatever. We need your help. You said — you said the world would be fine with us. It isn't. We've lost everything." 

He takes a deep breath, rocks his head to the ground. "You left. And I've never asked you for anything. Never begged. But now you're gonna bring him back. Cas. Mom. Hell, even Crowley." His hand tightens. "You owe us, you son of a bitch." 

"Please." It's begging. He knows it is and doesn't care. He’d beg for weeks straight if it wasn’t useless. "Please help us." 

A beat passes. Nothing happens. He didn’t expect it to work. God's never really gave a shit before, has he? 

It's fine. All fine. 

Jack cries when Dean slams the door. He strangles the steering wheel between his hands, hands that itch to inflict. Hit. Destroy. Sure as fuck not to nurture, not to quell the newborn screams, because Cas was wrong. Dean isn’t good at this.

A handful of deep breaths later, he leans down and fishes out a pink pacifier from the bag. Jack latches onto it, his pudgy face relaxed. Blue eyes float up to Dean. Innocent, full. It stings, and Dean turns away before his body uses whatever scraps of water it has left to make him cry again. 

When he brings the engine to life, Zeppelin creeps through the speakers, one track after the next in an order he memorized long before Cas got the chance. 

He plays it front to back on repeat until hunger and exhaustion win out, and he finds a motel.

[big-deku-energy]

I think about All Might the day he met Izuku.

I think about how alone he was and how much pain he was in. How he devoted his life to keeping a peace he didn’t feel, how he couldn’t acknowledge that it was falling down around him because he couldn’t acknowledge how much pain he was in.

I think about chronic pain and how he forgot how much he’s hurting. The thing about chronic pain is that while it never goes away, you learn to deal. Sure it aches and you feel like you’re falling apart and this kind of thing would have kept you in bed for days once but... it’s normal now. It’s every day. So every day you get up and take your pain killers and meds and keep going. It’s easy to forget what it was like to not be in pain. It’s even easier for everyone else to forget that you were hurt.

I think about his grief over losing so much. How he’s probably older than Nana ever was now and never got over her, how he keeps her words at heart even now. A hero should smile and so he smiles and the smile becomes a lie. Have you ever noticed what a big theme parents are in My Hero Academia? Have you ever noticed how the adult heroes never seem to have families?

I think about “getting over it.”

I think about All Might keeping so many secrets that he forgot how to be honest. He tells Recovery Girl only four people knows the truth about One for All. It’s a secret. He doesn’t tell her about Gran Torino and Nighteye who gave up on him years ago but were there at the start. He doesn’t tell Izuku anything at all until it’s already a problem.

I think about fallen ideals and how a hero who had the highest aspirations now calculates his time. All Might wasn’t going to save Bakugou from the sludge monster. He was out of time, he was in pain, he was going to watch this kid die. And to be honest... I can understand that. He did everything he could for the day and he’s coughing up blood again and what about tomorrow? He’s already pushed to the brink, pushing anymore will only take away his ability to help in the future.

I think about when All Might lost more and more time with One for All. He knew he couldn’t push it because he was already past breaking. He should have retired years ago. He didn’t. All Might is supposed to save everyone but he can’t and now he has to weigh which lives he can save and which he can’t. Spoon theory except each spoon is a life and heroes aren’t allowed to be wrong

I think about him on the roof telling a quirkless boy that he couldn’t be a hero and I think about how so many years ago Nana looked at this quirkless boy and set him on the path to being the greatest hero of all time. What was that? What happened there? Did he forget his origins? Or did he look at this kid and think “you don’t deserve to suffer like I have been?” He shatters a kid’s dreams and it’s not fair to either of them. Isn’t he allowed to have one bad day? Can he really care for everyone?

I think about him counting down the days to Nighteye’s prediction. Knowing he’s going to die any day and not being able to care. It’ll be mercy at this point.

I think about him at the end of his rope, on an extended suicide mission, so fucking tired and hurting that he just tells this random kid a generational secret, his greatest secret. For that moment it didn’t matter to him. He’s exhausted. He’s already shown his true form and hacked up blood, no one is going to believe this kid anyway. He’s going to get up and do it the same tomorrow and the day after and every day after until the day he finally kicks it

I think about how the day Izuku met All Might it was one of the worst days of Izuku’s life. And I think about how for All Might it was just another day counting down the seconds until he stopped functioning and counting down the days until he died.

[billyhargroveinaponytail]

Good Ole Dacre Montgomery. 

Chapter 9: Call Me Friend But Keep Me Closer.

Songs for this chapter:

All I Wanna Say- Lontalius

You Were Good To Me- Jeremy Zucker

Consequences. - Camila Cabello

When The Party is Over. -Billie Eilish

_____________________________________________________________ Thank you to everyone who sent kind words during my rough patch but we’re back and there is only one chapter left!

@dreamin-of-dacre

@speedmetalqueen _________________________________________________

The crowd echoed through the large empty mall while large crates were carried in and cameras were put into place.

"Battle time?" Paisley glanced to Joe. "Battle time!" He nodded, he was covered in fake dried blood and wearing a dirty Scoops uniform. "I can't get over how great those shorts look on you!" she pinched his rear causing him to jump a little.

They erupted with laughter, when the mall doors swung open and in walked Liv with a large smile splattered across her face. "Hi everyone!" She rang.

"I didn't know she would be here." Paisley spoke up. "Neither did I." Myra mumbled flipping through her notes. She glanced around the court looking for Dacre but he was nowhere to be seen.

The others began filing in, decked out in their 80s wear. "Everyone get together we need to get started as soon as possible." The director yelled finding his position behind the camera. Myra took a seat in her usual chair and Paisley joined her side.

"Hi ladies! Are you excited for this?" Liv joined them in the seat beside Paisley.

"Oh yes super excited!" Paisley spoke in the most fake high pitched voice. Max,Will and El stood by the door waiting for their next directions. Myra kept herself focused on the paperwork. Sylvia quickly took her seat before the director yelled, "Quiet on set! And Action!" He shouted, the three kids took off running down an empty hallway. Mike and Max both had arm around their shoulders and they were trying their best to carry El. The lights sporadically flickered throughout the vacant hallway.

"In here,in here!" Mike spoke as they turned another corner. "Okay come on, come on, come on." He repeated, smashing the buttons on the elevator. A door at the opposite end swung open and there stood Dacre. He wore a white tank top and jeans, his entire body was covered in makeup and his hair was a sweaty mess hanging all around his face. Max turned to face her set brother as he limped his way down the hallway with an evil expression.

"Billy. Billy, you don't have to do this."

"Billy. Your name's Billy. Billy Hargrove." Max spoke in a fear filled voice. Dacre only moved closer stomping his feet with every step.

"You live on 4819 Cherry Lane. Billy, please, I'm Max, I'm your-" Before Max was able to finish her sentence Dacre's hand swiftly shot across her face dropping her to the ground. A loud scream came from El who coward behind Mike. Mike then charged forward trying to push Dacre away, Mike's body was then flung against some old pipes while Dacre went for El, the person he had came for. El reached her hand up but Dacre was quicker he grabbed her wrist and twisted it backwards,shoving the palm of his hand against her face banging her head off the wall behind them, he then pushed her to the floor and towered over her body.

El laid unconscious, while Dacre grabbed her arm fling her over his shoulder. He charged down the hallway, he took multiple turns before reaching the back door of Scoops Ahoy, he kicked his foot threw the door, stomped through the ice cream parlor and reached for the gate ripping it up.

They now stood in the center court of the mall, every neon light around them flickered intensely. Dacre lowered El to the floor leaning in close to her ear. "Don't be afraid. It'll be over soon." He whispered. "Just try and stay...very still."

The snarling of a large creature came from the roof of the mall, El's eyes turned in that location. Her vision somewhat hazy. large legs began entering, a loud echoing bang with each one.

From the actors and crews point of view it was nothing but a large beach ball but to the viewers it would be a large monster made of flesh and blood of all the flayed people.

El whimpered trying to back away from the creature, while Dacre stood still watching it's controller move towards them.

A large bang lit up the sky causing Dacre to curl over in pain, the large monster let out a screech.

"Flay this, you ugly piece of shit!" Lucas shouted from the top floor of the center court, tossing another firework in the direction of the monster. Johnathan and Nancy then joined along hurdling large fireworks over the edge.

"Hey asshole, over here!" Steve shouted throwing one in the monster's direction as well. Dacre yelled,arching forward in pain with each explosive thrown. He dropped to the ground flailing his body around, El noticed his pain and tried to quickly get away. Dacre noticed and snatched her ankle yanking her back to the place she was resting before.

"We're almost out!" Will yelled to Lucas.

"I know!" Lucas replied to him tossing over the last couple fireworks.

"Dustin! We're out of time!"

Max flickered her eyes she was now waking up. An unconscious Mike laid across the room from her. "Mike,Mike! Get up. Mike, can you hear me?"

Mike came to, looking up to Max. "Hey, come on." She took his hand, helping him stand.

"You okay?" Max asked him as he looked aimlessly around the room. "Where's El?"

El laid under Dacre, his hands holding her shoulders down. With every explosion he winced,pain and anger across his face.

"Seven...feet." El spoke out with a gasp. "You told her the wave was seven feet. You ran to her, on the beach." Both of them now had tear filled eyes. "There was seagulls. She wore a hat..with a blue ribbon. A long dress with a blue and red flower. Yell-yellow sandals," She chocked on her words. "Covered in sand."

"She was pretty." Dacre's lower lip quivered listening to El describe his mother, he closed his eyes imagining the moment.

"She was really pretty," El spoke threw the tears pouring down her face. "And you, you were happy.

"We're out!" Will now yelled to his friend holding up the empty basket.

"Damn it!" Lucas spat,looking over the balcony to the creature.

The large monster now turned it's focus back on Eleven, Dacre stood to its command, now staring face to face with it. Mike and Max ran around the corner to see their girlfriend and stepbrother standing in reach of the creature. Dacre's face showed nothing but fear as a large arm reaching out for Eleven, Dacre caught it in his grasp stopping it.

"No!" Dacre yelled, Eleven pushed herself backwards in shock. Dacre screamed even louder pushing the creature away. Two other hands came out piercing into the side of him. He began screaming even more this time in agonizing pain. Dacre dropped to his knees, black sludge now leaving his mouth. One final arm reached out slamming into his chest.

"Billy!" Max screamed, watching her step brother drop to the floor lifeless.

Mike rushed over to Eleven's side. "El!" He spoke rapping his arms around her. Max walked right past time to standing beside Dacre.

"Billy?" She spoke down to him. He choked on the fluids leaving his body.

"Billy, get up please. Billy, get up, please,please."

"I'm sorry." He forced out, before taking a deep inhale.

"Billy, wake up. Billy, get up. Please, Billy." She roughly shook his shoulders. She began sniffling trying to help him gain consciousness again.

"I'm sorry!" Eleven spoke to her cradling her friend in her arms.

"It's okay. It's ok." She patted her back trying to calm her.

"Cut!" The director yelled, the room fell silent, everyone was in shock. Paisley looked to see Myra's reaction and she was a mess. She had about 9 tissues scattered across her lap and her face was now swollen and scattered with tears.

"That was amazing!" Liv took off from her seat running to Dacre's side. She sat down beside him, took his hand in hers and placed a big kiss on his lips. "You did so amazing babe!"

"Did Paisley know? Did she know Billy was going to die? She seems completely unfazed. While on the other hand Myra is sitting over here in a ball of tears." Sylvia sat forward in her chair stretching her back.

Paisley shrugged, she wasn't even sure that Joe knew about it.

Myra wanted nothing more than to run over to Dacre wrap her arms around him and give him the biggest hug, but his arms were currently occupied with someone else.

"Wasn't that amazing guys?" Liv held Dacre's hand pulling him over to the others. Paisley rolled her eyes at Liv's overuse of the word.

"Yes that was great. You did a great job." Myra gathered herself, trying to hide the evidence of her crying.

Dacre gave a soft smile to Myra.

"Thank you!" His face was still covered in filth and sludge dripped from his smile but it was still heart felt.

"Well what about me? I didn't die but I threw one hell of a firework huh?" Joe walked down the steps, coming up behind Paisley placing a kiss on her cheek.

"You did great too babe!" She wrapped her arm around him.

"Yes! Everyone did amazing!" Liv giggled, still holding a tight grip on Dacre's hand.

"Hopefully none of you forgot the dinner tonight!" Sylvia broke the silence that started to grow over the group. "I made my famous homemade macaroni and cheese!"

"Of course we didn't forget! I'm starving!" Joe chimed in, looking over to Paisley. "I'm going to go shower and change, you coming with me?" He raised a brow.

"Actually I was going to help Myra, I can meet you at the diner hall!" She returned the kiss to his cheek.

Liv was eye locked with Dacre, mumbling something about how nice he looked. Myra just sighed and gathered her bag.

"I will be there Sylvia, don't worry. I wouldn't miss out on your home cooking!" Myra walked away from them Paisley in tow.

"You feeling ok?" Paisley nudged her elbow against Myra.

"I'm ok. It's just hard. I want to be the one to congratulate him and be all affectionate with him in public but I obviously can't."

"I'm sorry MJ, just remember he likes you, she's just contracted to like him." Paisley held the large stage door open for the both of them and they made their way to Myra's trailer again.

"That's the problem, Pais. I think she actually likes him, maybe the whole Jake thing is a ploy to get jobs or what not."

Paisley stopped in her track and glanced to Myra. "You think someone would actually do that?" She shrugged, reaching for her keys.

"It's possible. I guess. Who knows it might just be the jealousy speaking."

The entered into the trailer and Myra headed straight to the bathroom, splashing cold water into her face. Paisley dug through her bags searching for something to wear. She ended up choosing a lose fitting white top and dark navy jeans. Myra spent about 20 minutes deciding on something, and finally with help she was able to find something perfect. A short light pink dress with a small cut out in the back.

"We're running late, so you better hurry." Paisley yelled into the bedroom, pacing the front door.

"I'm ready, I'm ready let's go." Myra left the room throwing her phone into her small hand bag.

The dining hall was completely different now. The tables had all been joined together to make one large buffet area. The lighting was low with twinkle lights scattered all over. Large groups sat together at the tables, Paisley searched for Joe. He had been seated towards the end of the table and of course in front of him sat Dacre and Liv fingers intertwined exactly how they were when Myra left them earlier.

"You look gorgeous!" Joe reached out for Paisley's hand, pulling out her chair for her.

"Thank you! You look very handsome yourself!" She took a seat, placing a hand on his leg. Myra looked for an empty seat and the only one available was one directly in front of Dacre. She sighed pulling her seat out and joining the others.

"Myra, I love that dress on you!" Liv spoke in her high pitched voice. She reached out with her free hand taking ahold of her wine glass.

"Thank you! You look beautiful as well, liv!" Myra clenched her jaw, hoping the evening would not be as awkward as it was already starting off. Appetizers were brought around to everyone along with a beverage cart. Joe and Paisley both ordered a glass of wine but Myra need something stronger.

"I'll take a jack and coke!" She smiled to the waitress. Myra took her drink and quickly gulped down the first half of it. Paisley kept an eye on Myra hoping she wouldn't make a fool of herself. She had a tough time handling her liquor. Liv had about 6 more glasses of wine, before the entrees had even been handed out. Her hands were all over Dacre, and since Myra was seated in front of him she had the worst seat in the building.

"Why don't you two get a room?" Mary yelled down the table noticing Liv smother Dacre with affection. The table roared in laughter, causing Dacre to intensely blush.

"I wouldn't mind that." Liv slurred a little, running her hands under his shirt.

Paisley tried multiple times to change the subject, none of them were successful until she brought up college.

"I can't believe you only have one more week left here MJ!" Dacre looked to her a little shocked. "Only one more week?"

"Aw Dacre's upset about losing his assistant! Poor babe! I could always help you!" Liv ran her hand through his hair and down his back.

Myra nodded taking another drink trying to ignore Liv's reply. "Yeah, only one more week. Then it's back to our dorms to finish out the last month of college." Joe put on a fake pout looking to Paisley. "Why can't you just stay here? It'll be much more fun."

"I wish I could but I have things to finish up if I want to graduate." Paisley giggled a little at his pout. "After graduation though I am all yours!" She placed a kiss to his nose. Myra was happy for them but she couldn't help but feel jealous.

"What about you Myra? What's in store for you after graduation?" Dacre glanced over at her, she was distracted by the straw inside her cup.

"Oh uh me? I was hoping maybe something in film. Maybe some place would be willing to hire me. Not saying I don't love this place but to actually get paid doing something I love would be a dream come true." The directors walked back checking on everyone making sure they were enjoying their food.

The next hour was the slowest hour in Myra's life. The drink cart ran it's final trip around the table, while the dessert plates were being taken away.

"You wanna take me home?" Liv looked up at Dacre placing a kiss on his shoulder.

"Sure!" He nodded placing a kiss on her forehead. "I think it is time for us to turn in guys. It was nice seeing all of you. I will see you guys in the morning." Dacre waved goodbye to the group, wrapping his arm around Liv's waist.

"I have to be honest, Myra. That was the most awkward thing!" Joe took a swig from his glass. Myra and Paisley laughed at his comment.

"That is what we have been saying all along." Paisley finished off her glass and checked her phone. "We should head back too! This wine is making me light headed!" She smirked at him, trying to lead him on.

"Oh right, lightheaded." He laughed, wiggling his brow at her.

"You gonna be ok alone,MJ?" Paisley asked worrying about her friend. Myra stood from the table pushing her chair in.

"I'll be just fine, I'm taking a shower then heading straight to bed." Myra hugged Paisley goodbye, before her phone vibrated in her back pocket.

Dacre: Meet me at the pool? :)

Myra shoved her phone back into her pocket and wrapped her jacket around her, walking to the trailers.

It was dark and the smell of cigarettes lingered in the air. A few stragglers walked through the streets, going home from the dinner as well. Myra had forgotten to leave a light on so searching around for her keys was a struggle. After finally locating them she opened her door and went inside. She also decided to reply to Dacre.

Myra: The pool? What about Liv?

Dacre was extremely fast to reply.

Dacre: Liv passed out as soon as we got back to the trailer. I'd like to spend some time with you. So the pool? :)

Myra: Give me 20 minutes and I will be there. :)

Myra had packed a bathing suit luckily, it wasn't her prettiest but it was dark outside and it would be fine for tonight. She changed into it while throwing her dress back on over top. She shoved a towel and her keys into her bag and took off walking to the pool.

Dacre was already there by the time she had arrived, he was out in the middle of the pool floating on his back. Myra pushed open the gate,closing it behind her. She walked over to an empty chair setting her things down.

"How's the water feel?" She removed her dress stepping over to the edge of the pool.

"Guess you'll have to get in to find out." Dacre swam closer to her. Myra rolled her eyes, sitting her toes into the surprising warm water. "Are you getting in or do I have to throw you in?" Dacre yelled up to her. Without warning Myra jumped in beside him, splashing him.

She came up from the water pushing her hair back. "Well? How's it feel?" Dacre laughed wiping the water from his face.

"It feels amazing!" She spoke in a mocking voice. Dacre pulled her in close to him wrapping his arms around her. It was nice to have his warmth against her.

"Were you crying earlier?" He rested his chin on the top of her head.

"Of course I was crying, Billy died. That was so sad seeing you like that." Myra sobbed a little thinking about it.

Dacre brushed his thumb across her cheek. "It was sweet, I can't tell you how badly I wanted to kiss you." Paisley's comment earlier echoed in her head even louder then before.

"What's going to happen next week when I have to leave?" Myra stepped back from him, wondering his answer.

"What's going to happen with what? Us?" Dacre pushed back his damp hair, his accent going heavy. "I don't know,M. I want to say everything will be perfect and we'll be madly in love somewhere together. But I can't, and I don't know what's going to happen to us."

Myra nodded, knowing this would be his answer, but she knew, she knew where they would be a week from now. She would be working towards graduating and Dacre and Liv would be at some fancy party or beach madly in love. She didn't want to think about that right now, she wanted to just enjoy this moment and worry about next week when it came.

"Dacre?" A familiar high pitched voice rang through the parking lot. "Dacre? Where are you?"

Dacre quickly got out of the water going to Liv's side. "Liv? What're you doing? I thought you were asleep." He grabbed onto her intoxicated body stumbling through the gate.

"I was s-sleeping." She slurred. "I woke up to find you and you were gone I thought maybe you went to Joe's trailer but here you are!" She looked over to the pool still not noticing Myra floating inside.

"Swimming? How come you didn't invite me." She fumbled around with her top trying to pull it off. "I wanna swim!" She slurred even more.

"Liv, honey. Why don't we just go back to bed? I'll put a movie on." Dacre pushed her shirt back down.

"A movie! Awesome!" She wrapped both arms around Dacre's neck.

"Take a seat here let me get my things." Dacre sat her down on an empty lawn chair and grabbed his shoes and shirt from the side of the pool. He looked down at a confused Myra waiting in the water.

"I know what'll happen next week," She spoke softly to him. "We'll be strangers. It'll be like we never met. Until then we will just be friends. Thank you so much for everything Dacre." She gave a sincere smile and waited in the pool for them to leave.

"No," Dacre stopped her. "I don't want that,Myra. I don't want to be strangers." Liv called out to him, "I have to go, Myra please just let me tell you tomorrow ok?" Myra nodded watching the two of them walk away.

After a few more laps in the pool Myra gathered her clothes,wrapped her body in the towel and left the pool area.

Her trailer was still dark and quiet when she returned. She took a quick shower and then put herself to bed. "Goodnight." She mumbled to herself quickly falling asleep.

The next morning Myra woke up early, she went and spoke to Jake and discussed her next week her on set. She filled out some paperwork and then headed off to the cafeteria to get herself a cup of coffee. She sat at an empty table and scrolled through social media on her phone. It had been a while since she had checked everything but there was nothing important she had missed.

"Mornin' M." Paisley sweetly spoke joining her at the table. "Mornin' Pais. How was your night?"

"It was great! How about you?" Paisley intertwined her fingers around her cup looking over to her. "Did you do anything fun or just go to bed?"

"Just bed for me, I was too tired for anything else." Myra lied,taking in another drink from her cup.

Paisley knew something was wrong, Myra was not acting herself.

"I should head back to the trailer, I have a lot of laundry to get done." Myra stood up, throwing away her still half full cup.

"You need some help?" Paisley questioned her. Myra only shook her head and walked off to her temporary home.

It was so hard for Myra to lie to Paisley but she didn't want to involve her anymore. Paisley was happy and had a good life she didn't need to stress over Myra's nonsense.

Dacre searched the set and cafeteria but was unable to find Myra. Luckily he did find Paisley leaving the dining area. "Hey you seen Myra today?" He stopped her, hoping she had seen her friend.

"Yeah she was headed to do some laundry, she must be sick or something. She wasn't acting like herself." Paisley looked concerned, considering following Myra to her trailer.

"Well I am needed on set but if you run into her could you have her come by and see me, I wanna talk about last night." Dacre adjusted the buttons on his shirt, before turning away from her.

"Last night? Myra said she went to bed last night." Paisley instantly knew her friend was lying and rushed to her trailer.

"Myra James!" She loudly banged on the door. "Myra James!" She yelled again before the door was swung open.

"What's wrong?"

"So now we're lying to each other huh?"

Myra sat Paisley down and explained everything to her, everything from the very beginning. She didn't want to hurt Paisley and she believed she deserved to know.

"M..I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Paisley held tightly onto her friend's hand.

"I don't know, I'm sorry. It's all going to change I promise." They both exchanged a meaningful hug and Myra returned to her room going through her laundry.

The evening had come and Dacre had left set on a break, he made his way over to Myra's trailer hoping they could finally talk. Paisley answered the door, Joe standing behind her.

"Hey where is Myra? I'd really like to talk to her now." Dacre stepped up the first couple steps.

"Myra's not here." Paisley spoke sadly.

"Not here? Is she still in the laundry room?" Dacre leaned against the step railing.

"No, Dacre. Myra went home."

[alias-b]

Nothing Lasts Forever.

Summary. The town of Derry changes people. Sends them running away. What it draws in is arguably worse. Humans create the hate and evil monsters come to feed off of. Eleanor Baker knew that well at a young age when she stumbled upon a painted figure in the distance. Pennywise never forgot the girl without fear. It’s possible that they haunted each other.

AN: I take no responsibility for this. Me flexing some horror and hopelessness bc I have nothing left to lose here. Wrote this to work through some things and sorta in love with it. TW: Should be obvious. Trauma. CSA mention. Abuse. S*xual references. G*re. S*icidal thoughts.  Death. Pennywise F*cks and it’s canon. Sorry, Mr. King.

Pennywise x OC Eleanor Baker ~ Also on my ao3

   They say she saw It first.

   They say she smelled the circus. Sugary sweet and the rusting of metal.

   They say she heard the bells toll soft. Once. Twice for her.

   They say she felt no fear.

   A branch cracked under pristine shoes, distracting a clown in the midst of hunt. The prey; small and blue eyed, barely five years old, ran into safe arms where their family set up camp for a weekend by the lake. 

   Body twisting around, It saw her last. Six years old. Curious green eyes shimmered even under grey skies. Pigtails. Feet behind her, father was hunched over to change a tire with mother beckoning from the window. Pulled over to the side of the road near a Derry forest. The Baker family. Well known and beloved because they had money.

   “Eleanor. You’ll ruin your new shoes. We can’t be late for your recital. It’s going to rain!” Mother’s voice went under heard. Leaves rustled while the clown made a path to slink toward her. Her lips parted, eyes fixated and unblinking. Yellow eyes faded to baby blue like the pretty jewels her mother wore. Safe.

   They were face to face. Drool dripped to hit her once untouched shoes. Those bejeweled eyes surged from that delicate blue back to a hungry orange, glowing brighter and yet he smelled nothing. 

   She had no scent. No fear. A deep, wide nothing. Vast as the ocean could reach. There was no advancing, no will to bring forth the deadlights. She’d probably think they were pretty stars watching over her. Cinderella wishing for a fairy godmother and a prince to whisk her away. He could only watch her make an utter fool of him. Somehow that charmed.

   “Eleanor, now!” Came the shout from her father. A drop of red emerged from the trees. Shiny and terrible. “Where did you get that?”

   A red balloon skimmed against the breeze.

   “From the clown.” She said, getting into the car. “He gave it to me.”

   “Enough playing around, Nell.” Father pressed her inside. The grip was lost along the tangled string. That spot of blood floated up toward the endless sky. Became a floating star too. She wished to float with it. 

   Eleanor danced her little heart out. Prima Ballerina in the making. Perfection was not everything, it was the only thing. She gazed into the audience beyond the balmy stage lights. Rows and rows of orange eyes. Glowing into her. No fear to be cast. Not for any of them. This world didn’t deserve it.

   She saw It again that same week. When they attended a big family reunion. Picnic and all. And her uncle pulled her into the closet full of coats and old board games that were gathering dust. He called this a game too. A secret game. 

   After he’d decided the game was over, a pang snatched his heart to squeeze. Gushing. Eleanor saw those glowing eyes from the shadows. Thought for a moment it was the old cat who roamed the grounds.

   Her uncle asked for help with no breaths left. Tore her frilly dress clutching at her. Hit the hardwood with a finishing crack. Blood pooled.

   Nell didn’t want it to stain her shoes or Mother would be upset.

   That white face bent down toward her. Spine curving to push out against skin. Utterly inhuman.

   “Can you smell the circus, Nelly?” Painted lips full of clustering teeth rumbled. She blinked. White cheeks threatened to tear open with the grin curling.

   “Yes.”

   Little, pretty bells chimed in the ruffles of his garment as he laughed. Soft and sweeter than any sound in this world.

   "Who are you?"

   "Pennywise. The dancing clown." He caught her looking at the body behind his feet.

   Big eyes full and empty.

   “Oh, don’t worry about him, he won’t float.” The clown paused. “You’re a little wonder, aren’t you?”

   She said nothing to that.

   “Go on, grow and see if the world devours you. Tumble back to the weeds where I'll find you again.” His own curiosity was a growing sickness. This fragile human. Unbreakable. 

   The thing about Pennywise was he never considered himself the villain. He only came to feed when that evil and hatred humans brought this world was potent. Natural order. Clockwork. Wolves feed on sheep. The worlds spun on.

   Predators tore into prey, he wouldn’t apologize for that. He didn’t create the hatred, just fed from it. Didn't stop it either. Little dash of fear did a body good. Gave it a sweeter taste.

   Fear was painfully human. A trait that tore us open to display the soft underbelly because it betrayed us down to the core. Granted us something to overcome. A test of endurance. Truly let our true colors pour fresh and obscene. Beautiful. Even when it overcame.

   Pennywise gave her head a pat, leaned down to whisper into her ear.

   “I see into your blackest heart of hearts, Nelly, deep down you’ll know. You'll always know.”

   The door opened. Tiny footsteps away from the dark and the figure there always watching her. Like the stars above in a black sky.

   “You’ll know.”

   Eleanor walked downstairs. Out into the sunny day full of festivities and family. Asked her aunt for another piece of cake. Frosted with yellow buttercream flowers. They discovered her uncle in that closet at the same time the flies found him too.

   They found the cloth clutched into his meaty, stiff hand and began to ask questions. She didn’t want to talk about the secret games he played when she was in that house. They sent a bolt of thunder rattling into her brain. Unraveled the synapses.

   Her mother burned the cloth. Vowed to never speak of it in hopes she would forget. Children forgot things all the time.

   Nell never forgot. Not for a moment. Not her uncle or her festering relatives who seemed to easily put her in the back of their memories.

   She wanted them to always remember too. If anything, they owed her that much.

   The pictures her mind fleshed out with crayons were not what children should be drawing. Twisted bodies sometimes. Other days, it was those eyes. Molten lava. Mother and father decided this wasn’t something they could deal with. Seeing her looking so still and motionless around the house like a ghost was too much. Knowing they failed their daughter was just too much. A lock clicked.

   They put her in a place that watched over mistakes of all ages from rich families. Paid it well. They told Eleanor it wasn’t her fault and yet, she was the one locked away in a tower for it. She was the one ignored and doped up.

   Ten years and she gave them nothing. Years of homeschooling. Counseling. Medications. Years of sticking her tongue out to swear she’d swallowed her pills. Years of giving them nothing. No laughter or tears. She never hurt a fly and she was the monster.

   Sometimes, it was easier to become the monster they wanted, she supposed.

   Eleanor got out and married the first man who smiled at her. Called her pretty. Just to be away from mother and father. They’d rot in the weeds soon enough. The rest of her family dwindled. Terrible accidents. She vowed to never reproduce to spite them.

   Husband played games too when dinner wasn’t just right or when she dressed just a little against his wishes. Seven miscarriages. Too many broken promises. A car accident pulled his body apart. Left her with some money to return home. 

   Mother and father needed her now, sick and dying in their lavish beds. Life always went on in Derry. Father went still snug in his tomb a month later. Few more weeks and mother’s harsh insults became apologies.

   This girl she ignored was all she had left.

   “Nell, I hope you can forgive us.” Her mother croaked one day.

   “You’re free to do that, mama.” She’d turned and came to sit on the bed.

   “Do what, my dear?”

   “Hope.” Eleanor tucked some brittle hair from mother’s face. Made room for the pillow she pushed into place. Eight minutes and it was over. Twenty seven years and members of her family dropped like flies. She told herself it was a curse. Or fate.

   Bloodlines dying had never been so beautiful. Not built to last forever. Not at all. There was justice in that much.

   Both Eleanor’s parents became ashes in two ornate urns. She drove them out to the Barrens and poured them into the festering waters. Stinking of Derry’s rotten bowels. Wind swept. Picking up green and brown leaves. Wading the waters to give them some appearance of peace.

   Nell didn’t smell the stink of death. She smelt the circus. Hot buttery popcorn and cotton candy. Twang of metal from the old, rusted rides whirling all directions. A child’s laughter echoed out from the giant pipe ahead. Covered in sludge and moss. 

   She followed the lively sounds. Enticed. No long holding to this world. Another one awaited. It always had. Marked with two glowing orange eyes.

   Reminded her of the lights twinkling every Halloween. Jack-o-lanterns you couldn’t blow out before midnight because it was against the rules and would bring you bad luck.

   Through watery rot and dead leaves, Nell went into the pipes. Caught glimmers of light between cracks. Felt her way. Heard the uttering of the seven children she lost beckoning her home.

   Down.

   Down.

   Down.

   Ruined her clothes in the trance. Clawing for more because the world couldn’t hope to deliver. Into a massive nest with a skylight. Candlelight danced. She heard the trill of a music box until the room came alive. Whirled from rust and rot to marble and gold.

   Prettier than her wedding day. A church with decorated pews of red taffeta. White roses hanging from every corner. Petals crying into the cherry wood floors.

   A man smiled at her who wasn’t Husband. Sharp, brooding face. Swept brown locks slicked like Clark Gable. Pink lips curled and crystalline eyes gave a twinkle. A white suit and one red rose at his breast.

   She came to him when he reached. Body heavier because a dress dragged behind her. Full skirt of those same delicate white roses. Tight bodice that twinkled under candlelight. Nell smiled too. Utterly lost and found all at once in this room that smelled like decadent caramel apples. 

   A gloved hand curled into hers.

   “Am I dead?” She asked.

   “Oh, yes. For twenty seven years now. You wandered the Earth. But, you're home now.” That voice. All shivers. Chilling until the candles started to snuff out. “That was not life, Nelly. You existed by a thread.”

   “Nelly.” She mused in her deepest dream of dreams. The hate and the neglect and the sheer evil brought by humans who were supposed love and protect instead tore her soul far asunder.

   The man leaned in near her hair. Inhaled.

   “Nothing. Even still.” He recounted the memories. All those times he tried and failed to devour her. “Little wonder.”

   "Pennywise." She puffed, barely audible.

   “I watched you dance. All those years. You can dance down here too in the dark."

   Nell realized as he brought her out for a romantic spin. She’d been seeking him out all her life. All the decay and twisting vines in her soul. Begging to just cross over and stop this pain. But, he wouldn’t finish it because she had no fear. So she danced until the room began to peel. He wiped his cheek on one sleeve. Peachy makeup smeared the fabric to display that red smile upon white skin. 

   She pushed off him. Watched blood rain and melt the rest of it away. This place. A nest. A stomach. A pile of trash and metal twisted up toward the sky. Gouging. Figures floating around it. Waiting. Sleeping soundly because evil couldn’t touch them anymore. At the very least. They fueled something brand new.

   No cry. No scream. Nell succumbed. Stumbling back into a worn mattress as the clown crawled up toward her at some inhuman speed. Slapped his hands on either side of her head. They just breathed.

   Existed together in one space.

   Sometimes good and bravery didn’t blossom from overcoming fear. Sometimes you still wanted to die because enduring a lifelong ache was not growth. It just hurt. There was power in it, but it fucking ached.

   It burned. Plenty of things in her life burned. The scorn of her parents. Her uncle's games. The rotten nurses tossing her around. Husband's hands indenting skin.

   But, Pennywise didn’t. He just showed up to watch the fires grow hot and breathless into a black sky. The terrible view was still a breathtaking thing. Something shattering to become a supernova. Rebirth.

   Enduring pain was worth it. That sick curiosity that there was something more to life. It was worth it. So, fight. Endure. Ache. Be human while you have the chance in an inhuman world because it needs you.

   Gloves opened her dress. Tore layers of tulle and chiffon. Slashed silk. Hands pressed against his chest. Not pushing or pulling. Just holding. Shifting over thick, stitched cotton. Ruffles swayed. She felt a heart beat so hard there under her palm.

   He was alive. Something brand new. Not of this world.

   “Am I like you?” She begged finally. Years of searching and asking why. He stopped to see her green eyes. Glowered. One blue, one orange.

   “Not yet.” Was the truest answer he could form. Fingers gripped his fabric sleeves. Twisted just to hold onto something tangible for the first time in all her existence. Alive at last in this place. Water droplets echoed distantly. “You cannot last forever. Nothing lasts forever.”

   Except love, she thought. Except desire.

   Pennywise seemed to hear it even still. Felt the truth of it carve out his heart that was still beating powerfully. Profoundly.

   Something flayed her open. Pushed inside. Made her moan deliciously until two gloved fingers touched her mouth. Bodies connecting. Moving together.

   There were hands everywhere. Stroking soft caresses up and down her naked flesh. It felt like a million little pieces of candlelight were swirling up her body. Those same orbs that had been following her around for too many years shined behind his eyes. Resonated. Beautiful.

   She made out parts of him between thumps. Orange hair. Pristine paint. His mouth on her skin. A heart that was pumping vigorously. Low rumbling growls. Nell felt she’d been starved all her life and was finally feeding. Finally letting the ache flood out that she’d held onto for too long. Finally alive. Feeling. Deep down and drawing in it.

   Her voice came to beg for more of him. Hands grasping to touch him back. To delve into this earth and just feel. He touched her everywhere. Lips and neck. Down her breasts. Between spread legs.

   The combined sensations made her cry out for him to never stop. A gloved hand on her jaw brought their eyes together. Hot, wet touch. Boiling. The peak shattered them both. Nell fell to shuddering pieces. Curved up. Moaning and shameless. Weight fell into her body so lips could touch her own. Once. Just once while they were warm.

   Pennywise lifted off fully to see her eyes. Inhaled again and got what he’d sought too. Years and it was finally there.

   Those green eyes glimmered at him. A waft of sweet candied apples bubbled with heat. Fear. Clear as a crystal, dewy morning. It was the most beautiful thing in the world.

   There was finally something found that could be lost. Something she sought out and held and hoped for.

   And the fear of losing it was almost too much to bear.

   One gloved finger caught a tear that trickled out from the corner of her eyes.

   “Please.” She said, unable to find much else. Like she wanted him and nothing else for the rest of these long days. Do it. Just do it. Nell’s hand lifted. Gentle fingers drew lines along his face. "Pennywise. Please."

   It was a soft prayer.

   He lunged down. Sunk teeth into her tender neck. Tore the scream out before she could hope to give it. Nell choked there. Made an odd sound like she was laughing. It bubbled. Claws grew out from those gloves. Shoved forth into her raging heart. 

   A squelch.

   Her lips were still upturned when it was done. Green eyes pointed on him. Peaceful and bloodied. Naked under the moonlight. Dripping rubies.

   He tossed his head back and wailed. Teeth sharp and bared. Bloodied. Lost. A shattering sound that bent time and space apart. Pennywise plucked her up. Climbed high and vast to the very top of the twisting pile. Watched the dead children float like little falling stars. Something to make wishes upon. Peaceful for only a second in this life.

   He placed her there in a sheer drape. Closed her eyes. Let the deadlights swelter above them. Spinning all directions. 

   A scar thickened.

   Three days passed. The deadlights danced high and wide. Fluttering like a swarm of butterflies. The world spun on a new axis. Pennywise sat below upon his stage. Curved over in wait. Marble statue. 

   A low rumble like a purr erupted. Dainty feet came to him with a newfound grace. Little dancer. Deadly ballerina all porcelain and blushed. Blood red shoes made soft taps across the stage.

   A white hand touched his shoulder. His little wonder. Bells tolled distantly three times.

   “Can you smell the circus?” Her voice poured white hot. Purring louder so he'd feel it vibrate his own chest.

   Lips curled wide. Split. Pennywise rose to see her in the light. Perfection. Those green eyes shimmering like emeralds. Haunted. Totally alive and willing.

   “Yes.” He hissed. Cupping her face to see the angles. Not ruining the permanent brushstrokes that came with her rebirth. “Yes, I do.” A bond struck.

   I do. I promise. We'll float. Always.

   Nell smiled to match him. Totally and irrevocably his equal. A pulse of light drew them together. She granted him a single kiss, tasting candied. A new horror in this world hungry for the evil it would always bring.

   “We were built to last forever.”

[writers-blogck]

BNHA Imagines - MAIN 01

                           Meeting for the First Time 

Izuku Midoriya:

   How you met Izuku for the first time was not the first time you had seen him. He had never seen you before the day you stood in front of the entire class though. He had never seen you before but you had already memorized his face by then. Pictures of him and his classmates filled the screen when your brother would talk to you about your mission. The clip of the boy fighting the sludge monster would play over and over, his brave act immortalized in codes of ones and zeroes. 

       Study his movements, your brother would say, learn what you can. Your older brother was none other than Shigaraki, the self-proclaimed leader of the League of Villains. Shigaraki would make you watch those videos because he thought you would grow to hate him. You would never admit it but the videos did the opposite. He was such a hero, bravery running through his veins like blood. Dreams filled your mind of him saving you from the League and taking you far away. You weren't made to be a villain, you hated to see the fear in people's faces before you used your quirk on them.    Your older brother raised you to use your quirks on others your entire life. Like your brother, your five fingertips must be touching the person for it to work but you didn't disintegrate them. Instead, you rummaged through their brain and made them forget memories. On the rare occasion when you used your quirk at full power, you could manipulate memories instead of simply making the person forget. It wouldn't be as bad if that was it but your quirk came with a drawback. Any memories that you erased were instead placed in your mind. You had memories of a father who you had to take away the memories of his precious baby girl. You often erased memories so people forgot they ever saw the Leauge, giving you the memories of the torture they had endured. Your mind was filled with more memories of others than it was of your own.    As you stood at the front of class 1-A, your eyes couldn't help but drift to the green eyes you had only ever seen through a screen. The smile that he gave you made your heartbreak. He didn't know why you were here. He didn't know you were a spy for Shigaraki. If he did, he wouldn't be smiling at you like that. You wanted his smile to be real but you knew it would be gone if he knew the real you. He would only ever come to know this fake presented to him.

Bakugo Katsuki:

   When the first assessment was done, you were not excited. You had been placed in U.A. by recommendation from Ms.Joke and you were sure she had pulled some strings to get you in 1-A. She knew how powerful your quirk actually was and how you could become a great pro-hero with some training. The issue was that your quirk didn't help with any test given to you. Your basic skills and dexterity allowed you to do well for someone who didn't wasn't using their quirk. You burned with shame at the mutterings of the boy who had gotten third, Bakugo Katsuki.    "She didn't even use her quirk at all," He spoke to the red-haired boy who you hadn't learned the name of yet, "How did she even make it into 1-A, to begin with? I bet her parents paid for her way in, she didn't make it through the exams. She couldn't have."    Anger bubbled within you, hands clenched by your side. How dare he say that? It wasn't true that you hadn't used your quirk during the tests but that meant nothing. He should just keep his dumb spikey hair out of everyone's business. Why did he think he had the right to judge everyone? You had heard him talking bad about Deku earlier and now he was messing with you? Deku may not stand up for himself but you sure as hell wouldn't let yourself be walked over.    Your eyes met with Aizawa's, a look was shared between the two of you. Ms.Joke had informed him about you and your quirk, which may be why he was going easy on you with the chiding during the assessment. He understood that all of these tests weren't made for a quirk like yours. The man looked over at Bakugo before looking back at you, giving you a slight nod. That was enough for you to march up to the boy who turned his fiery gaze on you.    "You really should just shut up about other people," You growled out, not flinching at the sneer on his lips.    "And why should I? I'm the best so I'm allowed to judge sidekicks and extras like you."    "The best? Well, I don't think the best would have gotten third."    The class slowly went silent as the tension built up between the two of you, but Aizawa stayed back. The boy took a threatening step towards you, standing up taller to try to tower over you. Yet you didn't move as you kept your gaze locked on his. You weren't going to back down from this, you had to make your point obvious.    "You better watch your mouth."    "Or what? Gonna blow me up with those sweaty hands of yours?"    The growl that came out of him signaled that you may not have done the best thing, but you weren't going to back down. You would just prove that he was right if you did. When your gaze didn't waver, he brought his hand up with a smug grin. This would surely make you realize how weak you were. A few loud explosions popped by your face though it wasn't close enough to hit. He wanted to scare you but you had other plans.    Your hand shot up and grabbed your wrist tightly. A burning pain shot down your arm as the explosions hit your skin but you didn't flinch. Pain had been a part of your life ever since you were born. It would be hard for it not to due to your quirk. With a simple use of your quirk, the boy backed away with a groan of pain. The hand that had done the exploding shot to grasp his other hand in pain. When his red eyes met yours again, you flexed your uninjured hand with a triumphant smirk.    "Wound transfer, it isn't just for healing you know."

Todoroki Shouto:

   Neither of you remembered the first time the two of you met. You both believed that you had never seen each other before the first time in class 1-A, but Aizawa knew the truth. He could remember in the past when he had to take you to one of his meetings. He tried to keep you out of the hero's world but when your parents both died and left you with your uncle, he had no chose at some moments. He wasn't going to leave you alone.    This meeting just so happened to be where Endeavor had brought his youngest son, Shouto, as well. The little boy was polite, too polite. Aizawa could tell Endeavor didn't raise the boy correctly. When Aizawa chided the man, he was left with a threat to Endeavor that if he ever dared to try anything with you, he would be left a puddle of goo.    Out of the two of you, you were the most outgoing and confident one. Your parents had raised you to try to be the best and you planned on trying your best in everything that you did. This included making friends. Your chubby hand held onto Todoroki's as you led him to the playground while the adults kept talking. You had been here a lot but it was obvious even to your tiny brain that it wasn't normal for Todoroki.    The two of you played together, mainly consisting of you dragging Shouto to do something and teaching him about it. Even when you scraped your knee, you just got back up and went to playing. Such a simple action and yet he would hold onto it for years to come. You got hurt but that didn't make you stop. You kept going despite the pain. He would remember it subconsciously for the rest of his life.    When both of you were thoroughly tired, you hunkered down behind the rock climbing wall in the shade. Two children, so different yet so close for just that day. Shouto in proper clothes with the timidness of a mouse next to you in your dirty clothes who wanted to be friends with any stranger you saw. The two of you would end up being raised very differently and when you reached high school, the two of you would both be completely different from the kids that were on that playground that day.      "Do you think I can be a hero? Mommy doesn't like my fireside. She says it is too much like my dad," Shouto spoke quietly as he looked up at the blue sky.    "Anyone can be a hero! You will make a super cool hero!"    Ten years later, you would meet again and both be on the way to fulfilling that promise.

Kirishima Ejiro:

   Your mother called you special and unique but you just thought you were broken. All the students at your school pushed you around with your quirks, knowing that you couldn't do anything to them. You were one of the rare quirkless people. A kid who would amount to nothing in their life. Why would someone hire you when someone with a quirk could do it so much better? On the worst days, they would tell you that you weren't worth living. Most of the time it didn't bother you but there were the few days where it hit hard.    "Maybe you could be professional bait!" One of the boys said, shoving you roughly.  All you did was keep walking, ignoring all of the tauntings that they tossed in your direction. It wasn't like you hadn't heard them all before. They may be mean but they weren't the sharpest in the toolshed. Not very creative either but man, did they know how to use their quirks.    Holding your notebook closer to your chest, you sped up your pace. All you needed to do was get home and then you would be safe from all of this. You tried to focus on the steps you were taking and just getting home but those thoughts were quickly shattered when the tallest boy grabbed you by your forearm. He roughly spun you around to face him, fire in his eyes.    "You should look at someone when they are talking to you." The hold on your upper arm began to vibrate, the boy threatening to use his quirk on you. It wouldn't be the first time. His quirk allowed him to speed up his movements and he had learned that if he did it while holding someone's arm, the victim would receive a rather harsh rug burn. It hurt like hell but you couldn't do anything to fight back or your father would get angry. He was the police chief and said that any fight you got into, whether defensive or not, would look bad on his part.    As you opened your mouth to speak, the boy instead was shoved away. A red-headed boy had marched over while you were lost in your thoughts, eyes narrowed and fists raised. What caught your eyes the most was his uniform. It was the unmistakable outfit of the U.A., this boy was training to be a hero! It seemed like your bullies had noticed the uniform as well due to the steps that they took back. You couldn't help but let your heart swell with the tall boy in front of you. This was the first time anyone had stepped in.    "Hey, it isn't a very manly thing to mess with a girl!" He said with a raised voice, giving you the first glance of his sharp teeth.    With a grumble and mumbling, the boys simply shot you a dirty look before walking off. That had been the first time they left you alone without there being injuries on your body. You thought they weren't scared of anything but they scurried off when the red-head scolded them. You wanted to thank him but the words got stuck in your throat when he turned to face you for the first time.    His head was ridiculously spiked up, shooting up as if trying to touch the sky. His eyes were the same color of his hair, red with hints of brown. You knew it had to be rare for the same color of his hair to be his eyes. Perhaps he dyed his hair...Yet your eyes couldn't leave his face. His grin put the sun to shame and his eyes sparkled with happiness that you didn't even know existed. Time stood still just like a movie. You could almost hear the romantic music starting as the camera began to zoom in. Your fantasies were interrupted when he began to speak.    "Want me to walk you home?"    This boy was going to be the death of you.

Kaminari Denki:

   No one ever believed you when you told them what your quirk was. It didn't show up physically like many other quirks but you still managed to get into 1-A. Even when your quirk was in use, some people still wouldn't notice it until you explained it to them. You didn't blame them, luck never seemed like it could be a quirk. How could it be when it wasn't even an action? It was fate that decided that kind of stuff. A quirk couldn't change the actions of others, yet, yours did. How it happened, you weren't sure but you knew it was there.    In your life, you had been in many unlucky situations before. A car speeding past a red light, a man trying to push you onto the train's tracks, and dropping a pot of boiling water had all happened to you. Your quirk had saved you each time; the car missed you by an inch, your bag's straps stuck on one of the poles which kept you from falling, and the pot landed perfectly so none of the water spilled out. At first, you thought you were just a lucky person but when you went to the doctor's, they informed you that it was due to your quirk. It was a rare strand of quirk, one that had a single user before generation. You knew it was that rarity that got you into class 1-A.    Everything and everyone around you seemed so much stronger and deserved more than you. You hadn't even wanted to be here, the idea of being a hero didn't interest you. Yet, everyone had told you how selfish you were being if you didn't pursue a career as a hero. A waste of a quirk. That was the only reason you were here, so they would stop telling you that. Maybe you would learn to either accept it or perhaps even want to be a hero as time passed. But for now, you would simply be getting by. This was school, that was it.    You were walking into the lunchroom, a few minutes late due to Aizawa needing to ask you a few questions. You had not expected a fight to break out just as you were walking in. It was too hard to hear what they were yelling about but it soon devolved into physical violence, the main two attacking each other but the students around them were getting pulled into it as they were shoved around. One girl was shoved back, the tray she had her food on flying into the air. Instinctively, you pulled your hands up to cover your face. The food was thrown in your direction and many of the other students around you copied your actions.    Two hands gripped your shoulders and shoved you back just a few steps, though they kept their hold on you to keep you from falling. Your eyes fluttered open to be greeted with the most bright blonde hair you had ever seen. Slowly, your eyes moved down to see the dopiest grin but quickly your attention was drawn to the rice that was covering the boy.    "Man, this isn't how I thought today would go," A laugh flipped past his lips as casually as if there wasn't anything strange about this situation, "But at least I got to help a cute girl!"

Tenya Iida:

   You and Iida had known each other for as long as you had lived. Your parents worked with his and since you both were born only months apart, the two of you often played together in the daycare set up at the building. Since most of the other heroes didn't have any children, it wasn't rare for it to simply be the two of you to be the only kids in that daycare. But neither of you cared since you always had each other. This type of mindset only continued until you reached the teenage years. Somehow both of you made it into U.A., as well as both being in 1-A. It seemed like a miracle!    The two of you were walking next to each other on the first day, each with very different reactions. Iida was rather anxious and overthinking everything like he always did while you had a simple smile on your face. Your personalities were complete opposites. He thought plans over too much while you simply jumped into things without having a plan. You both kept each other balanced perfectly.    "Iida, just calm down. We already are in the top class rank, everything should be easy, breezy, and beautiful from here on out." You spoke as you walked, hands clasped behind your back.    "That most definitely isn't the truth. Because we are in the top class, we need to try our hardest to be the best. We will be up against all of those others who did just as well as us. We need to make sure that we keep up with them. If we fall behind, people will look down on us." You couldn't help but roll your eyes at his words. Yet, you kept your mouth shut, you knew how he could get. Your mind just simply didn't work as his did,  you learned to try your best to understand and relate to his words.    "Well, we can work that hard together. We got here for a reason which means we are good enough to be here. We will be just as good when we are in class." You shoved his side gently, a kind smile on your face. The boy simply shook his head at your words, going off on another tangent. This was normal and you wouldn't want it any other way. His mind may move as fast as his legs but that was just how he was. He accepted how you were, which meant it was only fair for you to accept him as well.

Tokoyami Fumikage:

   The first time you saw Tokoyami was at the Sport's Festival. His power was amazing! It was nothing like you had seen before and your mind swarmed with questions. His quirk was so different. It wasn't a power, it was more like another person! Would your own quirk work on it? Or would it work with just the boy himself? These questions pushed you to find him after his match. Sure, he lost but that didn't mean anything. Everyone but one person was going to lose so in your mind, he should just be proud that he made it so far!    When you found him, he was alone in one of the hallways with his head in his hands. He didn't look upset, no, that wasn't it. It looked more like he had a headache or something. Perhaps that was why he was here instead of back up in the bleachers. Either way, it didn't matter to you. While you didn't want to bother him if he wasn't feeling good, you knew that this was your one chance. Being in General Studies meant you didn't see the people of 1-A that much.    "Excuse me," You spoke softly which caused him to look up, red eyes slightly narrowed as he took in your appearance, "I'm sorry if I bothered you. I just wanted to congratulate you! You were so cool! I've never seen a quirk like yours! It is no surprise that you're in class 1-A!"    It took the boy a second to take everything in. The two of you must have looked strange next to each other due to him having a rather dark aesthetic while you were much more like Uraraka with your choice of fashion. You preferred lighter colors or just colors in general. You felt like you were bored or sad when you just wore black or white. You always tried to have some color in your outfits.    "Thank you..." His voice was deep and quiet, though that wasn't shocking. It fit his appearance so well.    "I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions...If you'd like, we can go up and watch the rest of the festival together!" Your smile made his heart skip, both in how uncomfortable he was and how flustered he was. He wasn't used to people like you speaking to him. Normally people left him alone, saying he looked too intimidating to approach.    He had planned to say no when Dark Shadow grumbled in his head. Of course, Dark Shadow didn't want to be near you. Perhaps that was why he ended up agreeing with your offer and following you back up to the bleachers. He had no idea that he would actually enjoy being around you. His dark heart seemed to crack a bit, allowing just enough light in for him to be able to deal with being around you.

Uraraka Ochaco:

   The first time you met, your attention wasn't on her. The trio had been walking down the sidewalk when someone in a middle school uniform seemed to just appear out of nowhere. One moment there was no one in front of them and then a blur of a person appeared. Deku and Uraraka seemed to be taken aback but Iida stayed in his spot. His sharp eyebrows narrowed as he stared at the newcomer. If Uraraka had to guess, this person could only be a year or two under the rest of the group. Most likely a year, perhaps with some change. The girl was brought out of her thoughts as the person began to speak almost as fast as they seemed to appear.    "Tenya! How was your first day? Mine was good but I know it must be nothing when compared to yours. I mean, you are attending U.A! I can't believe it, well I can, but I still am super excited! I knew you would make it, you're really smart. Though sometimes you can be too strict and follow the rules too much...Anyway, how was your day? I want to know it all! Oh, who are these people?"    "(Y/N)..." Iida grumbled softly under his breath, obviously annoyed by your actions. He had gotten used to his    "We're his friends...We met him today," Deku offered as Iida seemed to collect himself. Who was this person? How did they know Iida? It shouldn't be hard to figure it out, yet Deku Uraraka's minds were spinning with the greeting.    "Friends?! Oh, that's awesome! I was really worried he wouldn't make friends just because he can be so strict and serious all the time. He really is cool once you get passed all his guidelines and boring rants. He's my big brother, by the way. I'm (Y/N), youngest of the Iida family. I tend to be kept out of most of the press stuff so I wouldn't be surprised if you never heard of me. Our eldest brother is the one most people know about."    "Strangely though, as the youngest, they seem to have the most extreme strand of our quirk." Iida explained, letting out a breath before looking back over to you, "Have you eaten yet? Since you got off school?"    The two were confused by his words. Since you had gotten off school? Almost all of the schools in the area only got off less than ten minutes ago. If he had said all day or since lunch, that would make more sense. Instead, he specified since leaving school. Uraraka's eyes scanned you, taking in your rather thin yet toned appearance. Did you have an illness? Anorexic? She would hate to assume and end up offending either you or Iida. She never wanted to unintentionally hurt someone.    "No...I was just planning on waiting until I got back home."    The duo watched as Iida rummaged in his school bag for a few moments before finding the object of his desire. A granola bar? Iida must be the overprotective type if he was that worried about getting you something to eat. Uraraka didn't understand why you couldn't wait until you got home to eat. She did that a lot and even then, she skipped some meals due to money issues. She knew personally people can go a while without eating. Still, Iida handed you the bar which you gratefully began to unwrap.    "Is she alright?" Deku asked softly, hoping the words only were heard by Iida.    "Yes, now she is. As I stated, they seem to have gotten an almost overabundance of whatever gene gives us our speed. They don't have the same leg formations as myself or my brother, instead, it seems that their engine, if you would like to use that word, resides somewhere inside of them. They are unable to stop moving without being in discomfort. Due to this, they lose a lot of energy and need to be refueling most of the day. Think of a Hummingbird and their wings. Any bird works. They need to eat more."    For the first time, Uraraka noticed that even as you were standing, your right leg was bouncing up and down at an extreme speed.    "Come now, let's get home. I'll see you two tomorrow." With a curt nod, Iida nudged you in the direction of home. Your eyes quickly went from him back to his friends, waving happily before turning back around and beginning a new conversation with your brother. The two left behind were still dazed from the strange encounter but both shared one thought. They would like to meet you again.  It didn't hurt that you were pretty cute too.

Mina Ashido:

   Living with one of the top heroes wasn't as hard as some people would believe. Being related to one was an entirely different story. It wasn't hard to deduce who your brother was with the white wings extending from your back. You wished it wasn't so obvious. It was annoying how often you were stopped on the streets for someone to end up just asking who your brother was. No matter what you did, you lived in Hawks shadow. Sure you were younger but it would be nice for someone to try to get to know you for you and not just to get close to your brother. So many teen girls had tried that. Luckily, you learned how to sniff them out after the first two times.    What no one ever acknowledged was that you were an up and coming hero yourself. Even though you were still a teenager yourself going to highschool, you had made a name for yourself as a hero named Angel. The name hadn't been your idea, the media named the mysterious vigilante that without knowing who they were. Unlike your brother, your wings were able to retract into your back; the only hint they had been there in the first place was the two long scars on your shoulder blades. This allowed you to go to school as (Y/N) during the day and fight crime as Angel at night.    Walking back to the apartment you shared with your brother, your wings sagged. It had been a tough fight tonight and your left-wing had gotten torn up pretty badly. Nothing time and bandages wouldn't fix. Hawks wouldn't be home since he was on patrol tonight so you would be able to deal with the wounds without interruption. You kept on a tight schedule, only allowing yourself to go out at night when you knew Hawks wouldn't be home to notice you missing.    "Oh my God! It's the Angel!"    Your wings instinctively puffed out causing a sharp and hot pain to shoot down to the tips of your fingers. Hands gripping the two daggers you used, you turned to see who had just noticed you. Another villain? It didn't sound like it but one could never be sure these days. You had heard of a villain named Toga who looked like nothing more than a cute young girl. Looks deceived and you had learned that early on.    "What do you want?" You growled out, attempting to sound in power. You wanted villains to fear you but with the body of a teenager, it was hard. Instead of some street thug or villain, a girl with pink skin stood under a street light. Her eyes stood out to you with dots of yellow in a black sea. She definitely wouldn't be able to hide with an alter ego when she looked like that. Your eyes took in her uniform, a U.A. one. One to the school Hawks had made you apply to just a few weeks ago. He got a strong interest in your attendance, even giving a recommendation. He didn't care when the school year started so why now? You were beginning to wonder if you weren't keeping your night escapades as secret as you thought.    "Whoa, whoa! Sorry, I don't mean any harm or anything! I just was taken aback to see you, I mean, you seem like a myth with how the papers are telling the story." Her voice hinted to no violence, allowing you to sheath your weapons once again. Your wings pulled back and while one was able to return inside of you, the other was limp and extended.    "Are you hurt?" She asked softly, taking a few steps to get a closer look at you. With your mask on, you knew she wouldn't be able to know who you were and yet you couldn't help but flinch ever so slightly. She must have noticed this because she stopped when there was just a few feet in between the two of you, not coming any closer.    "Let me walk you home at least. I promise I won't tell anyone, hero's promise. Well, a hero in training at least." When you looked back at that moment, you knew the only reason you agreed was due to the flutter her smile brought to your stomach.

Tsuyu Asui:

   How had Tsuyu gotten herself into this predicament? She was back in her dorm room with what looked like a squirrel person. They had a large bushy tail and cute ears but it wasn't only in the look that they resembled squirrels. When she had seen them initially, she had witnessed them climbing trees and jumping from branch to branch without any issues.    The girl had meant to go for a simple walk through the forest, that was all it was supposed to be. It was not supposed to end with her taking in some feral person because some villains were messing with them. She could have just helped and left it at that. Yet, with those eyes, she couldn't seem to leave them there. Something seemed wrong with them like they weren't used to how the world worked.    "So, can you speak Japanese? Or anything really?" Tsuyu asked, catching their attention from the ribbon they had been toying with. All she got back was a vacant stare and a tilt of the head. Of course, they couldn't speak or write, this just had to be even harder. What was she going to do? She couldn't just hide an entire person in her room forever. Yet, what were the other options? She couldn't just take them back to the forest, it was dangerous. That man could be out there still.    "Great..." She set her head in her hands, trying to keep the stress from getting to her too much.    "Great!" They repeated with a large smile. Tsuyu knew they didn't understand the language but at least it seemed like there would be the promise of teaching them it. Tsuyu had never been good at teaching but this couldn't be that hard, right? She just had to get some baby books to start with. They could go from there about other stuff. Maybe they knew more than they could let on.    "Oh...." She groaned as she leaned back, "I wonder how long until Aizawa figures out what I did."

Jiro Kyoka:

   The first day of school, stressful as always. You hated trying to find your way around a new school and it was only increased when that school was U.A.! Upperclassmen were so much more threatening then they had been in any of your past school experience. They all were training to be heroes in one way or another. It was intimidating and a bit flustering at the same time. One boy had phased out of his clothes when he went through a wall halfway to talk to someone on the other side. You had no expected to see someone naked on your first day!    Lunch always was the worst. During class, you were placed in a seat and didn't have to pick anything. Luckily you had made friends with a boy in your class, 1-B. No one seemed to be that trustful of him due to his quirk which they labeled as dangerous and villainous. Shinso walked with you    "So, where are we going to sit?" His voice brought you out of your thoughts, the loud chattering on the cafeteria coming back to your ears. You nodded and began to walk, knowing the boy was following behind you. He was letting you pick...Why did he have to let you pick?! Your eyes scanned the large crowds, not sure where to sit. How could so many people go to one school and eat all at one time? This seemed to be a bad plan in case of an emergency.    Some of your classmates were sitting together but you noticed there were no seats left. There were a few tables with one spot left but you didn't want to separate from your purple friend. He was the only person you had talked to. If you lost him, then you truly would know no one that you sat with. Your hands tightened on your tray as panic set in. You hated having to choose...Just as your chest began to feel like it was being tightened in a vice, a voice like an angel rang out.    "Hey, need a place to sit?" It was a girl with short purple hair, darker than Shinso's. It bordered almost on black but next to the bird boy she was sitting by, it was easier to see the difference. It took you no less than three seconds to thank her and sit down. Shinso simply sat down next to you with that tired look on his face. You were surrounded by what you would call goth kids but you wouldn't ask for anything else. This was a miracle in your eyes, even if you didn't seem to fit into the group's aesthetic.

[thecagedsong]

Cool, so one of my fandoms is having a really bad day, and since I care about Fablehaven until this monster of a fanfic gets finished, how about some wholesome meta? I don’t really care what the drama was about, so don’t tell me. We’re all a little high strung, and I tend to take disagreements personally in a way that I’m working on, and don’t need to be involved in. 

Now that that disclaimer is out of the way, who wants to talk about the Five crowns? Because I had a 14 hour car ride yesterday, listening to the second half of Evening Star and Shadow Plague, and I am so ready to let you all in on the code I cracked. I found the unifying magic diagram of the Fablehaven verse. The key to ultimate satisfaction, and if there was a magic research journal in universe, I would post this in and win the Top Magic Nerd of this Century award.  My goal is to make this as accepted canon as possible, because I am ridiculously right. No characters involved, so no drama except of the scolastic kind, relying on heavy references to canon. 

Ready? 

SO, I made a pretty big claim. But I’ve been toying with this theory since before Dragonwatch three came out. I need some reviews before I inform Brand Mull that I’ve cracked his secret and won the game. If this symbol isn’t on the spine of the Journal of Secrets, what is even the point. 

A good symbol does three things: identifies the pieces you are dealing with, helps the viewer reach a new understanding about the pieces, and map onto the cultural understandings of the audience. aka a cross with four quadrants of airplane, mitochondria, love, and toe nails is a terrible symbol. See common memes for usually pretty good symbols and graphs. 

So you got five crowns right? That means you have a pentagon and a five pointed star, and the biggest trick was figuring out where each crown went, and how they related to each other. 

Examine five-part belief systems, see where the crowns match, unifying symbol explains everything, move on. Easy.

NO.

You wanna know why?

BECAUSE FIVE POINTED STARS AS SYMBOLS ARE MORE WORTHLESS THAN AAA BATTERIES FOR WATCHING TELEVISION

Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, obviously they are very useful for things like organizing systems within a single body. Who functions as the head, the shield arm, the pivot foot, etc. But the point of that diagram is that they are equally important and dependent to every other part. Which doesn’t work when the different groups keep trying to break each other’s kneecaps (see b5: fairies v demons).

It also falls apart on the five-piece cultural scale. The most well-known 5-piece cultural scale is obviously the chinese elements: Fire Wood Water Metal Earth.

Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert on those at all. But it all broke down on fire, TBH. Were dragons fire? But a large point was that their breath weapons weren’t always fire. Were demons fire? Even the ones covered in sludge. Were demons earth? Was the underking earth? All I got were fairies as water, in the end. If someone wants to give that a go, be my guest. 

I drew so many pentagrams trying to figure it out, and it never worked. No matter the arrangement, it never told me more about the crowns except that there were five of them. I was about to despair. 

But then the muses sang: The Forgotten Crown. 

(That’s the title of my thesis, btw)

Like I said, five pointed stars were trash for this system, but what if I added another crown, one that no one bothers to count, because by their nature, they can’t do anything. That’s right:

The Forgotten Crown of the Fair Folk. 

The symbol slipped into place like sharp pointy things into Warren. And now I can get to the real meta after sharing this image:

Isn’t it beautiful? After I cracked this code, I showed it to my little sister. She smiled contentedly, calling it satisfying. It is so satisfying. It speaks to so many levels of understanding. 

First, I depicted for you, we have the morality and the terrain triangles. 

Morality triangle is the easiest, if you feel uncomfortable labeling drown-happy naiads as good and all demons as evil, congrats, thinking about the nature of good and evil is precisely what Mull was going for. Since I am suddenly one of those people, I’m going to be using the creation/destruction dichotomy, but acknowledge that both of those work. 

Fairies can be most easily understood when Kendra asked the Fairy Queen what she should do with her life. She’s an unlimited fount of the Fairy Queen’s own power, allowed to do whatever she wants, and the Fairy Queen tells her to nurture life. Be fruitful, put good things in the world, help people grow. Their goal is to create, their magic is defensive, beauty is wonderful for its own sake. The better you are at respecting and nurturing life, the stronger your magic is. Dryads are responsible for the whole forest, and throughout the series they are seen as more powerful and serious than fairies, which can make the plants they interact with grow and hamadryads, who are connected only to their tree. Certainly more powerful than the petty, waterbound naiads. 

Ganalus’s speech to Seth about his own nature is where you can understand demons in this world. They like to destroy and torture, they find amusement in things like plague and clipping live beings to their belts and dragging them around. They are driven by the need for more power and control. Their nature is to harm and break apart, and that has its place in this world, but we care about the stuff and people here, so mortals and fairies have got to keep these punks in check.

And of course, the Fair Folk. Here’s where this triangle gets fun. The worst of the worst gets to be Demon King, the best of the best get stronger fairy powers. That means the most neutral of the neutral get to be the leader of the Fair Folk. We’ve heard references to the main city of the Fair Folk: Selona, somewhere in Europe, and a mysterious exert that I’ve seen images of with Lord Dagrel that I’m trying to pin down. I’m posing that their powers come from being neutral. They talk about the terrible consequences of the last time they went to war, what if it the equivalent of their fallen state, when they break their neutrality, and changes them fundamentally. 

This breaks down the most, but they are the Forgotten Crown for a reason. They hold themselves apart from issues of the other crowns. No one even remembers that they have a crown, because as Seth and Celebrant have shown, who cares? They aren’t going to do anything about it. Everyone collectively forgot/don’t care about them. But their abilities are equal in strength to the others, but different in use, and less valued by those who have battles to fight. Their neutrality puts them exactly between good and evil, creation and destruction. They take the choice not to act, and there is power there too. 

Next is the Terrain Creatures. 

Sky giants control the sky, obviously. Thronis and his ability to control the weather, their height, while their feet are on the ground, far as we know, everything important happens in the sky. 

Underking gets under the ground, again, obvious. Different from the other two points of the terrain triangle in that there is a lot of creature classifactions in their domain, but think of how big the surface of the earth is, underneath it, all theirs. 

Dragons, they dwell in the sky and below the surface, putting them in both. Water dragons and Dromadus both primarily function beneath the surface, and their wings let them be in the sky. while not stronger necessarily than the other terrain crowns in their own domains, they are top of the food chain for the creatures living on the ground, and could probably take out the undead that venture near the surface, and I have high hopes for seeing a Sky Giant v Dragon in the next book. 

Cool, we got our organization of information. We learn something about them based on their placements within the triangles. But is that our symbol? No! Symbols are different than graphs, we should be able to squeeze ridiculous amounts of meaning from them, and we aren’t done yet. The two triangles map really, really well together.

What does the placement of the two triangles together tell us about the individual components?

a WHOLE TON. This is what makes this symbol the most satisfying, the triangles create two separate categorizations of their powers and abilities, but they inform each other. The morality of the terrain beings, and the domains of morality beings. 

Dragons run the whole spectrum from creation to destruction. We see a lot more of the destruction dragons, because our kids are in a war, but Raxtus hits really close to the Fairies and can heal and grow with his breath weapon. We also have wizards, who chose mortality for the ability to use magic to create. All the way to effing Navarog, honorary demon. They run every shade of the creation/destruction spectrum. We also see dragons that don’t depend on destruction because we know that there are some that agreed to behave if it meant they weren’t shoved into sanctuaries. 

Sky giants, the group we know the least about, are good enough that their queen was deemed able to be the caretaker of a dragon sanctuary, so no inherent thirst for destruction and chaos. But they run the neutral side of creation, they weren’t going to step in to stop the demons, they like magic and creating from what we know of thronis, but they fit right here. 

Underking - fall between neutral destruction. The underking wasn’t orchestrating the opening of the demon prison. They crave life, its a food source, but more than that, they want to endure. They might fall closer to demons in their taste for extinguishing life, but they need their wanting of life to continue existing. They might have individual prizes and desires for life, but because they depend on wanting life for their own continued existence, they will never organize themselves into taking over the world. Congrats, you’re only half as destructive as demons.

The morality on the terrain is much easier to see blatantly. Fairies have wings, but in no way do they control the sky, and they live on the ground. Demons...I’m sure some of them fly, but they tend to prefer caves like Granulas and pits like Jubaya and Kurisok. Prefer the night, though the light doesn’t harm them. Fittingly, the Fair Folk do not have the ability to fly on their own, and they live on the ground, not under it. 

sO SATISFying how those fit together. Are you weeping yet? This is harmony on the organizational level. 

But I claimed this was the perfect symbol, the ultimate. There is one more layer describing how every piece relates to every other piece, per the best symbols. 

Opposites

This is the least defined level of interaction, and each line is unique, while still being opposite its counterpart. We’ll start with the ones we have the least information about and go from there. 

Demon/sky giant: We know nothing, at the moment. They have never commented on each other, and have never interacted. Why didn’t sky giants show up to the Zzyzx party? Who knows! So I’m going to speculate here, and propose that they just really can’t stand each other’s presence. Demons stay away from sky giants, because giants are way bigger than them, and it is hard to feel powerful when you only come up to their knee, and sky giants don’t like demons because...eww, demons. 

Fair Folk/Dragon: We know that there are Fair Folk at all seven dragon sanctuaries. We know that the Fair Folk were there long before the sanctuaries were created. Fair Folk neutrality let both parties trust the dragons to part of their watch. It also seems that Dragons have a very difficult time staying neutral. We’ve seen a lot of flavors of dragon, but the one flavor we haven’t seen, possibly by its nature, is a neutral dragon. The closest we came was Dromadus, who was an abstaining pacifist for two books, but kept lending help to the innocent and those aligned with the innocent. His neutrality broke literally the week someone asked him to break it.

 Fascinatingly, the talents of the Fair Folk are actually the closest analog to the breath weapons of the dragons. One unique ability, can be augmented by training, can do something unique to the characteristics of the user. This is enough to make their uses of magic foils for each other in ways that they can’t be with the other races. In fact, they take human shape, their wizards act a lot like the talents of the Fair Folk.

Their final opposite string: physical appearance. Fair Folk are attractive (symetrical) humans. Dragons are hulking reptiles of scale and claw meant to let everyone who can see them know who is the top predator around. Fair folk are disarmingly beautiful. 

Fairy/Underking: The dichotomy that we know the most about because it’s the one the protagonists find themselves on opposite side of. I could double the length of this post talking about these opposite foils, but this is already ridiculously long, so I’ll keep it brief. Consult upcoming thesis for full analysis.

Most obvious aspect of this line? They literally cannot co-exist, one must overpower the other. Nova Songs are consumed by darkness, while crown-fueled Kendra literally turns the undead into bones and dust. The darkness and light can’t balance like the demon cursed area + Fairy shrine stone did in Shadow Plague, there is no middle ground.

While fairies and demons make the creation-destruction spectrum, Fairy and Underking make the Life-death line. Unicorns, who have so much life and youth that lectoblixes overdose to death on them, and the undead that give up the joys light and live to continue. Because Death lasts as long as life. 

And finally my favorite line of opposites, their crowns functions in exactly the opposite ways. The under-crown does not share power. It accumulates, you become one of consciousness of the crown. They swallow you up, and you will never take power from them. They will continue. Meanwhile the Fairy crown has had several owners, as identified by Risenmay in dw2. And the Fairy Crown shares magic in a way that the other crowns don’t. The fairy Queen shared her magic with Kendra, yes, but she also shared it with her husband. All the male fairies fell with the Fairy King, turning permanently into imps. Unless the Fairy Queen isn’t being honest about how that happened, that meant that the male half of the kingdom was under the authority of her husband when he fell. Which makes sense for this crown. One person can’t make a new person on their own, they have to have a male and a female genetic coding. For the crown that is all about creating and preserving life, that power isn’t meant to be wielded alone. The Fairy crown can share, can give, while the Undercrown can consume and take. They are complete opposites in this.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading through this preliminary thesis. Counterpoints, additions, and commentary are welcome. I want to flesh this out a little more before sending my transcendent, beautiful, unifying symbol to Mull and have him announce that I have officially cracked the code. Really tho, the fact that I can pull this together into a unifying symbol is pretty cool in terms of Mull’s worldbuilding. 

Well...only works if he acknowledges the forgotten crown. Dragonwatch 5: the Crown of Selona. I can’t wait. 

[thatcartoonnetworkblog]

Cartoon Network Friday Spotlight- A Pup Named Scooby-Doo- “The Sludge Monster from the Earth’s Core”

Oh shit, I forgot to do a Scooby episode for Halloween! I did give Courage a spin, but not the other iconic scaredy cat dog, and that wasn’t even a scary episode! Well, considering how fucked up this year has been, I’d say that we deserve a little extra Halloween, so consider this an extension!

It’s honestly pretty surprising to see that A Pup Named Scooby-Doo was the last Scooby series for over a decade, as What’s New, Scooby-Doo? wouldn’t arrive until 2002. A couple of movies and a handful of episodes from this series aside, Scooby wouldn’t have much presence in original content in the 90′s. But it helps that two of those movies, Zombie Island and Witch’s Ghost, still remain among the most iconic part of the Scooby oeuvre. Scooby Dooeuvre, if you will.

Anyway, this is a fun episode, in which Scooby discovers a monster creeping in his freakishly huge doghouse, the same monster who robs the local bank, and the gang attempts to figure out who. If you’re familiar with the series, you know the beats- a couple of running gags, Fred blames Red Herring with no reasoning, there’s a chase set to doo woppy throwback music, etc. It’s all pretty cute, and has highlights throughout. One bit that has been noted is everyone’s realization to wipe their feet before racing into Shaggy’s house during a chase, including the monster! It’s just good manners.

[sombrz]

The Evolution of Katsuki Bakugou and The Importance of Saving

after the last chapter, i couldn’t help myself and wrote down a huge...meta? description of a collection of moments? relating to bakugou’s ongoing arc with his increasing dedication to prioritizing rescuing others in his pursuit to be a top hero. feel free to add on if i somehow forgot something!

behind the cut bc it’s really image heavy!

CHAPTER 5

we’re introduced to the concept of combat vs rescue, win vs save - and of course it’s by comparing our main boys. they started on opposite ends of the spectrum, after all. deku’s all hero, no super. bakugou’s all super, no hero. so yeah, bakugou managed to get first place in the entrance exam without a single rescue point. which is a feat considering even iida managed to get 9 points and it was clear he wasn’t thinking about helping others until he saw deku’s bravery when uraraka was in danger. at this point, bakugou’s only interested in showing off. being flashy and tough, proving he’s the best!

CHAPTER 18

bakugou’s first rescue and he could give less of a shit! he saves deku from running into kurogiri’s portal here, not with the motivation of saving his life but to get him out of the way - he jumped into the fray in order to take down kurogiri. saving deku isn’t even a plus, really, it’s just a side effect.

deku’s still grateful though.

EXTRA 1: THE FIRST OVA (actually written by horikoshi!)

bakugou initially complains about having to be on rescue duty, but he still gets praised by thirteen for his efforts: many heroes struggle with the parts of heroism that they can’t easily solve with their quirks, and simply by manually pulling the stretcher up, he’s showing he’s capable of overcoming that. a beautiful hero, indeed. then, later, while he himself doesn’t rescue todoroki, he works in tandem with deku and class 1A to ensure that save AND their victory. and while iida, uraraka and asui give deku the credit of coming up with their plan, and he modestly returns the praise to everyone, he makes sure to give indivudual kudos to bakugou - because like this OVA, aizawa’s ‘twin pillar’ speech, all might’s ‘raise each other up’ speech, and the upcoming movie all prove: deku and bakugou work best when leading their peers together using the ‘save AND win’ mentality.

CHAPTER 65 + Ultra Archive Databook Omake

saves deku again, this time from all might. this is interesting because he’s doing this for both their benefits despite still not really having the ‘rescue’ mindset. he’s counting on deku to make it to the gate, but he was the one (by launching deku towards the gate to begin with) who assigned them these roles. deku as the runner, while bakugou distracts all might and therefore, shields deku from the brunt of the attack. he’s putting himself in physical harm for deku. but he’s not thinking it that way: to him, this is still just for personal gain (passing their exam) and due to (thanks to deku) a renewed sense of willpower and drive. he sees these actions as his own willingness to destroy himself for a victory.

 and he’s definitely pissed later during the databook omake that deku went back for him, seeing no positives in deku’s innate inability to ignore others when they’re in trouble (especially when that someone is bakugou himself - since we learn during this exam that bakugou equates all might being able to stand against any kind of tribulation by HIMSELF and coming up on top as what makes him the strongest hero). 

EXTRA 2: THE FIRST MOVIE (not written by horikoshi but i still wanna bring it up)

uraraka can’t fight back or escape the drones because she’d have to release her quirk to do so - which would put deku and melissa in danger. but when things look grim, who comes to the rescue? bakugou does! like his first rescue, he’s not doing this with the thought process of ‘oh i have to save my friend’ but rather, ‘hey i just got here and there’s things to fight and one of them is about to attack uraraka so might as well start with that’ but in this case, it’s....the action that counts! and the action was still heroic! he did it in a very dramatic way too!

CHAPTERS 79, 80, 85, 90

i decided to group all these together. it’s all in the same conjoined arcs and it’s a little more nebulous on whether it counts for this particular meta because, well, bakugou doesn’t really do any rescuing. i didn’t bother with the sludge monster scene because it’s pretty clear-cut but i think that this really set the baseline for all future bakugou development and he filled the role of the damsel in need of rescuing - so it definitely affected his perception of it.

things i wanted to point out: during the forest, he and todoroki are together since they ended up partners during the forest activity. at some point after (or maybe as it happened) the mustard gas filled the forest, they came across tsuburaba and todoroki decided to carry him through the rest of the way. todoroki also has to continually point out to bakugou that he should avoid using his quirk as to avoid further endangering their peers still in the forest (since, y’know, fire and explosions + wooded area = bad). for this entire time, bakugou is the hothead who just wants to fight and needs to be reminded that, hey, others could get hurt if you’re not careful. he barely pays tsuburaba any mind either, and we can probably assume he refuted it if todoroki even slightly implied they take turns carrying him or something.

he still helps out tokoyami even though he didn’t really need to, since todoroki’s fire would have probably sufficed on its own. so that’s nice! but then the convo switches gears to the fact that the legue of villains are here to kidnap bakugou and his friends all agree to be his [fandom voice] defense squad. EXCEPT, WAIT, WHAT THE FUCK? HE DOESN’T NEED ANY PROTECTION, THANK YOU VERY LITTLE, HE’S FINE BY HI - oh, yikes, and he got taken by mr. compress. i do like how he did listen to todoroki telling him to follow them, and must have stopped grousing about it long enough for the guys in front to not realize when he and tokoyami got taken. 

uraraka’s the first to bring up that bakugou would probably feel bad about being rescued - because of his pride. that’s what leads deku to add the caveat of, if we offer our help to kacchan, kirishima should be the one reaching out - at this point, bakugou would hate help from anyone, even though he KNEW that he was a hindrance to all might during the fight, and deku knows from personal experience after the whole sludge monster debacle, but it’s less of a blow to his ego if it’s someone he doesn’t see as a threat, and he’ll be less hostile if it’s someone he recognizes completely as a friend. the fact that he’s starting to see anyone as a friend is a lot! and though he denies it later, that grin says it all - he’s glad to be saved. he’s thankful.

CHAPTER 110 (& 113)

this is also an interesting one. i wish more people did a bit of retroactive meta for bakugou during this arc, because everything he does really shows his mental state in the aftermath of his kidnapping. anyway, while the first part of the exam was to show off your battle prowess against foes (which, another interesting note, bakugou would have FAILED without kaminari), the second test is where you show off your saving skills. and this is NOT what bakugou does. his tagalong BFFs chastise him for his behaviour, but the ‘victims’ seem to realize bakugou is observant enough to know they’re low priority civillians. this doesn’t stop them from taking points off for his bad attitude though - because the thing about bakugou is he’s actually emotionally intelligent enough to understand other people (when not clouded by personal feelings), but he repressed his empathy at a young age and therefore struggles with acting appropriately without coming off as terrible. and he ends up failing because he presumably doesn’t try to alter his method and lets kaminari and kirishima do all the heavy lifting while being unusually complacent throughout - not even bothering to check out the big gang orca fight, despite apparently being aware it was happening.

but also, side note about the first test - where kaminari notes that bakugou held back on using his more powerful attacks because he didn’t want to hurt kirishima (who was on the ground) or kaminari. i didn’t include it as its own thing here since it more shows bakugou’s development in terms of teamwork, and not really rescuing - though i DO think getting kirishima back was on bakugou’s mind - but it’s still bakugou being pre-emptive and mindful of not hurting others and caring about his friends. sowing the seeds for his future motivations.

CHAPTER 120

after he failed his exam, finally vented his guilt and frustration, and beat deku in their fight - all might shows up with some words of wisdom! bakugou admits that all that ^ wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but a cool thing about bakugou is that he always absorbs criticism and advice and takes it to heart (ex: bakugou’s start line!) he’s not averse to changing himself to improve, and if his IDOL says that being a bit more like deku is the way to be the best hero: that he can finally put aside all that anger and all those misunderstandings, and instead rise up by helping deku and keeping pace with him? surpassing him? that saving people is just as important as the final victory? then there has to be some truth to that, right?

bakugou has nothing to do now but let all those revelations simmer, attend his remedial classes, and wait to be relevant again.

and so we’re now in a different ball game!

CHAPTER 207

let’s fast-forward a few months. bakugou’s been out of the spotlight for a bit, if you don’t count him getting his babysitting credentials, joining a band and just generally being more invested in ~friendship~. but we haven’t seen him fight anyone for a while! he automatically puts himself in the leadership position of team 4, annoys his friends by being bossy and impatient, same old bakugou, and then - wait, he throws himself between kamakiri and jirou to save her?

we finally see the fruits of his labour after deku vs kacchan 2. the old bakugou wasn’t a team player, didn’t care if anyone else got hurt as long as they didn’t get in between him and his opponent - him and victory. the new bakugou is still prickly, still has the same personality, still wants nothing more than to surpass the number one hero - but he’s had a change of heart. the new bakugou has discovered a new strength, and that’s the desire to rescue others.

CHAPTER 208

i don’t even have to say anything. class 1A does it for me. while monoma, tokage and class 1B are shocked beyond belief that bakugou is capable of changing...his friends are just proud and happy. at this point - seeing him day in and out - they (especially the ones he’s built up closer friendships with, like kirishima and kaminari) all know exactly how he thinks and feels. 

we also get to hear that, before the fight even started, he straight-up put it out there: ‘if you guys are in trouble, i’ll save you. if I’M in trouble, YOU gotta save me.’ and that’s the next step, right? bakugou never put stock in protecting others, sure, but he was adamantly threatened by the idea of being the one that needed protection. because that would mean he was weak, right? he can handle anything by himself! except....his friends saved him in kamino ward, and maybe - his databook bio implies this too - time to reflect on it has let him see that...was okay. we saw in the license exam with kaminari, and during the culture festival with jirou and the band (both things that are brought up here) that he’s begun to - not just acknowledge his peers as worthy of respect, as he did with todoroki and yaoyorozu after the battle trial and with kirishima and uraraka after the sports festival - but TRUST them too. specifically here, he trusts that if he fucks up or if class 1B decides to target him, he can count on his teammates - on jirou, sero and satou - to rescue him and take over when he can’t do it himself. and they do, so well done!

CHAPTER 219

the sketch is from the volume extras: to let us know that bakugou attacked from up above in the air (and the lamp post) in order to make sure no bystanders got hurt from his explosions or todoroki’s ice. :)

anyway, this is his official premiere into the hero world! his first licensed fight, and it serves as a surprising template for how bakugou operates these days. for one, he has no qualms with teaming up with todoroki - whom he claims to dislike (haha, suuuuure, kacchan). two, he lets todoroki call dibs on the main baddie while bakugou takes care of all the lackies (in one fell swoop bc he’s THAT GOOD) - even though one could easily argue that there’s less glory in that. three, he’s aware of his surroundings and notices a civillian in danger at the same time as all might, moving quick to save her, whereas todoroki only manages to react in the aftermath - because, as we’ve seen, rescue is now firmly imprinted in his mind’s eye. if he sees someone in trouble, that’s going to be the most important thing to him. four, we find out after the fight that he prioritized saving everyone’s wallets and purses before blowing up all the lackies. and i love that bakugou’s more talented at snatching wallets than actual goddamn thieves. master cook, natural musician, battle genius, honour student.....pickpocket extraordinaire?

bakugou’s still rude to the civillian, still brusque with the pro heroes (even trying to act cool when faced with proud dad might head pats), but this fight showed us where his priorities lie - and it’s not what they were when he started school and couldn’t even garner a single rescue point.

EXTRA THREE: THE SECOND MOVIE (also not written by horikoshi but it seems he had more of a hand in it)

the movie’s not even out yet but it’s clear that the boys are going to be leaning HARD into their new shared mantra. defeating nine and his lackeys, in order to save everyone on the island, and personally motivated by protecting mahoro and katsuma in particular.

so even though we don’t know the nitty-gritty of what happens yet, i felt the need to include it. bakugou’s gonna be doing a lot of saving in this movie. i can tell.

CHAPTER 248

he doesn’t do any rescuing here. on the contrary, he and the multi-quirk boys almost let a couple people get run over by a truck head-on because they’re still too slow to keep up with endeavour. but endeavour’s words here are pointed directly at bakugou: he can’t treat hero work like school, he can’t make excuses for his shortcomings - because he has to work his ass off in order to save lives.

once again, the narrative ties bakugou’s growth with the lesson that the goal of heroism is to save other people. 

CHAPTER 251

earlier that week, endeavour set the three main tenants of heroism: combat/suppression, evacuation and rescue. the intent was to show that a top hero has to do all THREE, instead of just one, but a lot of fans obviously instantly tacked one of those on each of our trio. i wasn’t surprised that most put ‘combat’ as the bakugou one. because, yeah, bakugou....battle instincts, feral boy, here to fight and win....

BUT THAT’S BECAUSE Y’ALL WEREN’T PAYING ATTENTION SINCE SOME OF YOU ARE ACTING LIKE THIS IS SURPRISING. so, let’s break it down - bakugou’s the first out of the car and first to activate his quirk. he’s so in the zone that he doesn’t even turn his head when catching his suitcase. and what does he do? he, ONCE AGAIN, just like in the ch219 fight, allows todoroki to be the one that handles the villain. instead, he uses his new supernova flashstep move to focus on RESCUING THE HOSTAGE. he catches ending by surprise, securing natsuo away from him, and blasts away to safety while also using his explosions to rip the other cars out of ending’s grasp, fully entrusting in deku’s ability to catch the cars safely and evacuate all the bystanders with zero injuries, and DEFINITELY zero corpses.

early bakugou would have immediately stormed for ending (then again, early bakugou wouldn’t have chosen to do this internship in the first place) but he’s not that guy anymore. we’re dealing with bakugou 2.0 now, and we have for a while now.

WOW, THAT WAS A LOT OF WORDS BUT I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL WE CAN KEEP ADDING MOMENTS TO THIS COLLECTION OF BAKUGOU’S LOVE FOR SAVING PEOPLE.